Beamz Alive! Schools and Health Care Facilities

Beamz Interactive, Inc. is proud to have a rich history with schools and health care facilities! These locations include …

Banner Health Thunderbird Medical Center ; Banner Health Thunderbird Foundation
The Beamz system, placed in 2005, is used in the acute-care facility by occupational therapists in Glendale, Arizona, to assist adult individuals with limited mobility as a result of accidents or illness; it is used as well in the Alzheimer’s clinic as a recreational instrument.  5555 W. Thunderbird Road Rd., Glendale, AZ 85306, Phone (602) 865-5555. Services Staff. http://www.bannerhealth.com

Bisbee Commission on the Arts/Central School Project
The Bisbee Commission on the Arts is a non-profit arts and cultural center with the three-fold mission of providing affordable creative space to working artists, preserving and adapting the historic Central School building as a cultural center, and fostering appreciation of the arts in the Bisbee community. Kids of all ages experiment with the Beamz in after-school projects and are currently rehearsing a summer performance featuring the Beamz as a centerpiece instrument. Central School Project, 43 Howell Ave., P.O. Drawer H, Bisbee, AZ 85603; Phone (520)-432-4866. Melissa Holden, Executive Director. http://www.centralschoolproject.org

Downtown Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Phoenix
Boys and girls in the Phoenix area integrate the instrument into their after-school music programs and present community performances. Partner: Ear Candy Productions, Inc., 365 N. 4th Ave., Suite E, Phoenix, AZ 85003. http://www.bgcmp.org

Ganado Unified School District
This district, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Northern Arizona, has a set placed in its kindergarten general music class, the library at its Middle School, and in both Beginning and Advanced Band classes. A school system highly motivated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and federal Title I initiatives; educators welcome the advanced technology and all-inclusive nature of the Beamz system. The first set was placed by Occupational Therapist Noelani Hong (928-755-1027) in 2009 and has been embraced by Special Needs programs and the Ganado Middle and the High School band/orchestra director, who has included the instrument in its bands. Individual students, including those with autism and reluctance to participate in group activities, have shown strong interest in the instant musical results with the Beamz, and are working with OT specialists to “bridge” the private — with the more sociable — experience. Ganado, Arizona, 86505. http://www.ganado.k12.az.us

Mesa Community College Music and Music Technology Department
Keith Heffner, Professor of Music at the MCC Department of Music and Music Technology, has two sets of Beamz. He is implementing the Beamz in programs its curriculum, specifically courses in Electronic Music I & II, Digital Audio Workstation I & II, and Introduction to Sound Design for Film and Video (EMI & II and DAW I & II are credited towards an A.A.S. degree in Music Business and Audio Production Technologies). Upper-division and pre-graduate students are working with Studio and Composer versions of Beamz and are developing their own curriculum strategies for advanced applications in technological music, including strategies in Music-Occupational Therapy. 1833 West Southern, Mesa, AZ 85202. Professor Keith Heffner, (480) 461-7000. http://www.mc.maricopa.edu

Musical Instrument Museum of Phoenix      
Bill DeWalt and the staff of the wonderful new Musical Instrument Museum, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, has two sets of Beamz. MIM and Jerry Riopelle share a vision with regard to music, which is, in MIM’s words, “… something all humans share, a source of beauty and comfort in our daily lives, a means to give voice to our joy in times of celebration and a powerful force that brings us all together. Music is the lifelong friend that we all have in common.”  In addition to being displayed as part of the museum’s unparalleled international collection of instruments, the Beamz will be used for educational activities and demonstrations, enabling museum visitors of all ages and skill levels to create and play melodious music. 4725 East Mayo Boulevard, Phoenix, AZ 85050. Bill DeWalt, President, 480-478-6000. http://www.themim.org

Phoenix Children’s Hospital
PCH is the original “outreach” Beamz client, having received an early model of the present Beamz system in 2004. The hospital has a modified set of Beamz for pre-and-post-op patients in the Neuro wing of the hospital as well as a regular system at the children’s day school, where the Beamz are in perpetual use in a special section of the classroom. Therapists and teachers use the system on a regular basis for mobility and rehabilitation “reach” training, environment control, relief of illness-related stress and anxiety, and cognitive rehabilitation. The modified set enables patients in a supine position, facilitates wheelchair and “stander”-bound patients, and is mobile: it is moved to the patients’ bedside or set up for partially ambulatory patients. 1919 E. Thomas Road Phoenix, AZ 85016, (602) 546-1000. Megan Goodman, PCH Teacher, (602) 546-1706. http://www.phoenixchildrens.com/patients-visitors/1-darn-cool-school

Park Meadows Elementary School
The Beamz are implemented and shared here in a broad variety of settings. General education courses in grades 1-6 incorporate the Beamz in language classes (spoken word, learning words and phrases, creative writing and drama, science and history, as well as general music) as “rewards” for productive students, and help the students with leadership roles. Interfacing with the SmartBoard and projected screens, the Beamz are involved in creative ways by various instructors to control the “energy levels” of students (getting them engaged and active, calming them down) and associating concepts of collaboration, timing, and cooperation (learning to “wait” for music cues from the system and harmonizing with other students, etc). 20012 North 35th Avenue Glendale, AZ 85308-2204, (623) 445-4100. Mary Sullivan, 6th grade teacher, (623) 445-4149. https://parkmeadows.dvusd.org

Phoenix Conservatory of Music
The Phoenix Conservatory of Music has one set of Beamz. PCM, which operates out of over 30 valley-wide educational locations, offers world music classes to learning-English-through-music/movement, private vocal and instrumental lessons to community-based young musicians, as well as a professional development series for teaching artists. PCM is currently developing ideas for incorporating the Beamz into their community choir, early childhood music classes, music theory and appreciation classes, and after-school composition classes for children ages 5-16. Location, valley wide (headquarters: 7801 N. Black Canyon Highway, Phoenix, AZ 85021). Regina Nixon, Executive Director, 602-353-9900. Partnership: Ear Candy Productions, Inc.  http://www.phoenixconservatoryofmusic.com

Phoenix Union High School District
Louis Kireopoulos, Technology and Special Skills Director of the Phoenix Union High School District, keeps The Beamz Outreach efforts very active with training sessions, demos and classroom visits for his district-wide distribution of 37 sets among his special needs, occupational therapy, and CBT educators. Medically fragile students and their teacher Maureen Tierney at Cesar Chavez High School have used Beamz in her classroom for over two years; Anne Martinez and her four classes of limited-mobility and cognitively-challenged students at Coronado High School routinely incorporate the system in her music classes. Both teachers combine the fun of making music with Beamz with cognition lessons (cards that represent words like “up,” “below,” “after,” etc. are paired with specific laser beams so that a sound represents a particular concept or action). Center for Educational Services, Phoenix Union High School District, 4502 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85012,(602) 764-1100. Louis Kireopoulos, Technology and Special Skills Director. http://www.phxhs.k12.az.us

Resounding Joy Solana Beach Hospice
Solana Beach, California, a nonprofit organization, introduced to the Beamz at the American Music Therapy Association’s convention in 2009. According to Director Barbara Reuer, Resounding Joy provides “supportive and recreational music programming” for community hospice organizations in her area. The hands-on program has been carefully designed to provide supportive music to home-bound individuals contending with chronic pain, anxiety, motor function and cognition; the organization believes the Beamz provides intergenerational involvement and ongoing at-home therapy. 3830 Valley Centre Drive, Ste. 705, PMB 542, San Diego, CA 92130-3307. Barbara Reuer, 858-922-3933. http://www.resoundingjoyinc.org/pages/aoverview.shtml

Roosevelt Unified School District/Valley View School
The Valley View Elementary School is the first elementary school in the Roosevelt Unified School District of Phoenix to order a total of nine sets of Beamz. Senior band leader Eddie Gaona has introduced the Beamz system to his beginning and advanced band students, who are learning timing, collaboration, composition and conducting skills using the Beamz system. Other instructors at the school are implementing applications using the Beamz relative to the special needs of students, and in occupational therapy classes. Gaining confidence with the Beamz helps students with routine tasks; kids also participate in exercises regarding the nature of cause-and-effect, and recognizing the sounds and tempos of various instruments (as well as the characteristics of various musical genres). Several of the nine sets are placed in pre-school classrooms, exposing very young children to technological music and its fundamental concepts (lasers, computer interactivity, composition and recording, looping, etc.). 8220 S 7th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85041, Maricopa County. Principal: John Wann. Eddie Gaona, (602) 232-4980.
http://www.rsd.k12.az.us

San Marcos Elementary School District
Jamie Merrill, Curriculum Specialist at San Marcos Elementary School, successfully requested the purchase of two sets of Beamz systems with a grant from the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Center Grant Program from the National Governors Association Center. 40 elementary school educators and their principal, Christine Sargeant, were oriented to the system and asked to visualize applications within their own classrooms. Among those were special-needs instructors who felt their autistic students could benefit from “enlarging their world” or “breaking out” via the Beamz, as the instrument provides a safe and satisfying musical environment from which an individual may compose and experiment with instant success. Other educators loved the diverse catalogue of genres and musical styles, yet others were drawn to the recording capabilities for the student interested in creating the “take-home” musical artifact. The school hopes to procure several additional systems. 451 W Frye Rd Chandler, AZ, 85225. Jamie Merrill, Curriculum Specialist. http://ww2.chandler.k12.az.us

Scottsdale Unified School District
Janet Blum, SUSD Fine Arts Coordinator, has one set of Beamz. She and the band/orchestra leader for Coronado High School visualize a number of applications for the Beamz and their students for grades 10-12, including the integration of Beamz into musical classes and performances, as well as uses in special needs programs. An in-service presentation for educators of Occupational and Music Therapy, as well as general education teachers, will be scheduled for later in the spring of 2010. 3811 N. 44th St., Phoenix, AZ 85018. Janet Blum, Fine Arts Coordinator, 480-484-6100. http://susd.schoolfusion.us  

Sierra Tucson Treatment Center Sierra Tucson Treatment Center in Catalina, Arizona has one set of Beamz. This facility features extensive range of programs and treatment modalities including traditional therapies, as well as varying forms of Experiential Therapies and Integrative Therapies. The Beamz was found to be helpful in controlling emotional environments and the management of anxiety, pain and depression; therapists visualized applications of the instrument that may help stimulate creative, artistic, and collaborative impulses. Therapists specializing in the care of young children of addicted parents also recognized therapeutic value of the Beamz system. Sierra Tucson, 39580 S. Lago del Oro Parkway, Tucson, Arizona 85739. http://www.sierratucson.com

 

Other Participants in the Beamz Outreach in Education and Health Care Network that have and/or use the Beamz include the following:

Arizona Grand Senior Living
4602 North 24th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85016-5253; (602) 954-9178

Sioux City Unified School District K-12
627 Fourth Street, Sioux City, IA, 51101

Tucson Unified School District/OMA Program
1010 E. Tenth St., Tucson, AZ 85719; (520) 225-6000

Washington Elementary School District
10444 North 39th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85051-1179; (602) 896-6300

Watertown Unified School District (Wisconsin)
111 Dodge Street, Watertown, WI 53094-4434; (920) 262-1460