Thank you for visiting the Code Beats video. This approach has already demonstrated exciting results in motivating and engaging students in computer science in its first year. We are preparing for the following summer camp and would like to hear your feedback. We are also happy to answer any questions!

We released an album based on the beats that the middle schoolers made during our camp. Check it out here: Code Beats Album on BandCamp

Hahahaha... this is fantastic! This is a program that gets the students' interests right in their comfort zone. This is consistent with situating knowledge in the psyche of the modern student. Kudos! I voted!!

This is great and definitely a friendlier way to approach CS.  Thank you for sharing!

This is fantastic! I love it when we can find those commonalities between different areas of study. There is a youtuber named Howard Ho who analyzes music in musical theater and the breakdown is similar but from a music perspective.  This does the same but applies beyond the music to coding. So cool!

What a fun project! I’d love to learn more about the outcomes for students—are you measuring their development of CS knowledge and/or musical knowledge? Or is the focus of the project primarily on engagement and motivation?

I’m also wondering what lessons you’ve learned from the first camp – are you planning to make any changes to the design of the second camp based on what you’ve learned?

Wow - I'm at VCU and had no idea this was happening. I'd love to learn more about this project. Let's get together sometime for coffee or a drink. For the moment, I do have a technical question: are the students using Python code blocks, writing native Python code, or working in some sort of hybrid system? Do they come into the program with ANY prior coding experience, or are you truly starting them from scratch?

Thank you for sharing this innovative project! Can you describe the Battle of the Beats more? Are students all in the same room hearing and voting on their favorite beats at the same time? 

I love this. What programming platform do you use?

Interesting project.

What coding concepts did you teach and how are you evaluating whether the students understood them. Do you have any way of determining whether they can apply those concepts in other situations?

Was the music from the video produced by Code Beats students?

Wow!!  So cool.  What a great way to get kids engaged and introduced to computer programming.  (Some of my favorite things are math and music, and I am definitely becoming a convert to Computer Science also!).  Introducing STEM in different ways to younger people is key in the process of achieving equity and inclusion in STEM.  Thank you for this amazing project.

Interesting project! Curious how you distinguish this approach from EarSketch from Georgia Tech.

First of all, we *love* the EarSketch platform. It is an amazing approach that definitely inspired us. We are using the TunePad platform, which calls itself "EarSketch's cousin". The platforms are similar. However, those are the platforms... Code Beats itself is really more of a curriculum / philosophy for teaching using a musical platform. 

So, TunePad is the platform that we use to deliver the Code Beats approach, which uses hip hop beats to teach coding. What work did we do to prepare our approach? We transcribed about 60 hip hop songs into TunePad, designed activities around them to teach different CS concepts, and created both CS and musical instructional units.

There is a LOT of room for even more people using music to teach coding. I could imagine it being done with rock, for instance, or even being used in more traditional music classes. I hope more people will join in the CS / music fun and make our related work sections even more awkward to write ;)

Did you look at how the students attitudes about CS changed?

What a great project!  I'd love to go to the camp!  I find myself wondering about any anecdotal surprises (or even challenges) you noticed students come up with.  For example, what kind of connections were students making to other songs separate from the Code Beats curriculum.  Were they using CS ideas to explain other facets of their music listening habits (idea of internalizing and transferring what they were learning)?  Thanks.