Interactive, team-building musical instruments help children learn

A new music instrument that works like a barrel organ, allowing children to create endless variations of melody and rhythm, alone and in teams.

Already an award-winning design, Musicon was created specifically to help children’s psychosocial and cognitive development through the wonder of music. The first version was the company CEO’s graduate thesis project. Musicon is now on Kickstarter and recently received the accolade of becoming Montessori school approved. Shaped like a barrel organ, a Musicon contains three instruments (a xylophone, percussive mill and drums) at the top of the barrel that are played by pressing a variety of buttons on the body of the instrument.

The button covered barrel can be hand turned or set to a specific speed using a lever on the side, up to 144 beats per minute. The instruments at the top of the barrel are attached by magnets, making it easy to move them around and test out different versions of the same rhythm. Made for use by children from the age of two, the barrel will automatically slow and stop if a child pulls it in the opposite direction or puts a hand in between any of the parts.

Educators and innovators everywhere are looking for ways to make learning more active and engaging, at all levels of income and knowledge. There is the USD 1 origami paper microscope, and a social robot that teaches children one word of a foreign language every day. Which topics are still relatively underdeveloped in this new style of learning?