ReturnUsing EarSketch to Teach Students How to Code while Making Music
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Colorado Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 1BCD
Explore and create: Deep-dive Creation lab 
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Session description
Purpose & objective
The presentation is meant to introduce participants to a tool they can use in their classrooms as a way to bridge music and computer science. EarSketch is a browser-based coding platform that creates music through code. This tool has been the focus of many partnerships with metro Atlanta schools in developing curricula for their classes, and has been utilized in classrooms around the globe since its release.
Participants will be given an overview of the curricula that we have developed and released. Afterwards, they will learn about some of the basic functionality of EarSketch and how to code a song from scratch.
Outline
Introduction (3 mins)
Overview of EarSketch Projects (10 mins)
Curriculum Examples + Standards Covered (10 mins)
Samples of student artifacts (10 mins)
Overview of EarSketch platform (2 mins)
Coding activity (45 mins)
- learn how to code a song from scratch (no coding or music experience needed)
Impact of computer science education in a music technology classroom (5 mins)
Q&A (5 mins)
Supporting research
Koval J, Hernandez D, McKlin T, Edwards D, Arce-Nazario RA, Carroll-Miranda J, Perez IRQ, Marrero-Solis L, Freeman J, Brown TL, Padro P, Garrett S, Rao AE, Usselman M (2023) Latinx Culture, Music, and Computer Science Remix in a Summer Camp Experience: Results from a Pilot Study. https://peer.asee.org/latinx-culture-music-and-computer-science-remix-in-a-summer-camp-experience-results-from-a-pilot-study
Magerko, B., Freeman, J., McKlin, T., Reilly, M., Livingston, E., McCoid, S., & Crews-Brown, A. (2016). Earsketch: A steam-based approach for underrepresented populations in high school computer science education. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 16(4), 1-25. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2886418
Freeman, J., Magerko, B., McKlin, T., Reilly, M., Permar, J., Summers, C., & Fruchter, E. (2014, March). Engaging underrepresented groups in high school introductory computing through computational remixing with EarSketch. In Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (pp. 85-90). https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2538862.2538906
Freeman, J., Magerko, B., Edwards, D., McKlin, T., Lee, T., & Moore, R. (2019). EarSketch: engaging broad populations in computing through music. Communications of the ACM, 62(9), 78-85. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3333613
Wanzer, D. L., McKlin, T., Freeman, J., Magerko, B., & Lee, T. (2020). Promoting intentions to persist in computing: an examination of six years of the EarSketch program. Computer Science Education, 30(4), 394-419. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08993408.2020.1714313
Engelman, S., Magerko, B., McKlin, T., Miller, M., Edwards, D., & Freeman, J. (2017, March). Creativity in authentic STEAM education with EarSketch. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 183-188). https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3017680.3017763
Session specifications
Facilitator
- Create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems.
Computational Thinker
- Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.
- Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.