Improvising Impact: Jazz Lab from Enrichment to Engine

The students most likely to transform our world are often the least likely to see themselves in a STEM classroom. Jazz Lab is changing that. In less than two years, this Battelle-funded initiative led by A Tribe for Jazz has engaged more than 2,000 youth and is scaling into a summer institute and career-tech model reaching rural communities across Ohio. Jazz Lab applies the principles of jazz to hands-on, culturally relevant STEM learning: improvisation teaches iteration and collaboration builds communication, through VR, coding, AI world-building and design challenges. In this Mobile Mega Share, explore the complete program ecosystem and learn how Jazz Lab was designed, funded and scaled from a single pilot to a multi-partner model, including the key decisions that made growth possible. Leave with a practical framework for embedding jazz-inspired, interdisciplinary learning into existing STEM and afterschool programs, plus core design principles and a partner ecosystem model replicable in any community.