Your Voice is Power: Integrating Computing, Music, Entrepreneurship, and Social Justice Learning

Roxanne Moore; Chalece Delacoudray; Sunni Newton; Justina Jackson; Meltem Alemdar; Stephen Garrett; Hilah Barbot; Jason Freeman; Joycelyn Wilson; Sabrina Grossman

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Thinking Outside the STEM Box: Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division Technical Session 1
Page Count: 24
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41759
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41759
Download Count: 909

Paper Authors

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Roxanne Moore Georgia Institute of Technology

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Roxanne Moore is a Senior Research Engineer in the G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on design and engineering education with a focus on promoting diversity and inclusion. She has served as PI and co-PI for grants from multiple sponsors including NSF and Amazon totaling more than $9M. In addition, her STEM outreach programs and curricula have impacted hundreds of thousands of K-12 students nationwide. She is the co-founder and director of Georgia Tech’s K-12 InVenture Prize, a statewide invention competition, open to all students and teachers in Georgia. She earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2007, and her Masters and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2009 and 2012. Dr. Moore received the Georgia Tech Teaching Effectiveness Award in 2018.

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Chalece Delacoudray Georgia Institute of Technology

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Sunni Newton Georgia Institute of Technology

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I am a Senior Research Scientist at Georgia Tech's Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC). I work on education research and program evaluation projects related to K-12 STEM education.

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Abstract

Computational thinking has become pervasive across many technical and creative disciplines. Creating a computationally literate workforce capable of recognizing and eliminating algorithmic discrimination requires diverse perspectives and lived experiences. Your Voice is Power is a 5-class period curriculum targeted for K-12 audiences that seeks to promote racial equity and increase interest in computing careers by integrating elements of computing, music, social justice, and entrepreneurship. Centering around the song “Entrepreneur” by Pharrell Williams, students engage in lyrical analysis to extract and explore themes of social justice using the OUTKAST Imagination framework. Students then engage with musical concepts from a computing perspective and implement them using EarSketch, a web-based, learn-to-code through music remixing platform developed at Georgia Tech. In this paper, we present a description of the Your Voice is Power Curriculum and results from an evaluation study. The curriculum overview includes a description of the content and activities, as well as a discussion of the frameworks and theories underlying the curriculum’s development. We also present results from a program evaluation covering both a pilot and a full implementation of this newly developed curriculum during the 2020-2021 academic year. Participating high school students and teachers were recruited to respond to online surveys regarding their awareness of and interest in computing, music, and social justice, and their experiences in the competition. Teachers felt that competition participation conferred a variety of benefits to their students and expressed positive attitudes around the social justice focus of the curriculum. Students provided largely positive feedback on the competition and reported a positive impact on their understanding of social justice and equity. Students also demonstrated high levels of understanding of the ubiquity of coding skills and applications. Taken together, program evaluation results show that this integration of themes is effective in engaging students in difficult conversations about race while building interest in computing.

Citation
Format

Moore, R., & Delacoudray, C., & Newton, S., & Jackson, J., & Alemdar, M., & Garrett, S., & Barbot, H., & Freeman, J., & Wilson, J., & Grossman, S. (2022, August), Your Voice is Power: Integrating Computing, Music, Entrepreneurship, and Social Justice Learning Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41759

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Computational thinking has become pervasive across many technical and creative disciplines. Creating a computationally literate workforce capable of recognizing and eliminating algorithmic discrimination requires diverse perspectives and lived experiences. Your Voice is Power is a 5-class period curriculum targeted for K-12 audiences that seeks to promote racial equity and increase interest in computing careers by integrating elements of computing, music, social justice, and entrepreneurship. Centering around the song “Entrepreneur” by Pharrell Williams, students engage in lyrical analysis to extract and explore themes of social justice using the OUTKAST Imagination framework. Students then engage with musical concepts from a computing perspective and implement them using EarSketch, a web-based, learn-to-code through music remixing platform developed at Georgia Tech. In this paper, we present a description of the Your Voice is Power Curriculum and results from an evaluation study. The curriculum overview includes a description of the content and activities, as well as a discussion of the frameworks and theories underlying the curriculum’s development. We also present results from a program evaluation covering both a pilot and a full implementation of this newly developed curriculum during the 2020-2021 academic year. Participating high school students and teachers were recruited to respond to online surveys regarding their awareness of and interest in computing, music, and social justice, and their experiences in the competition. Teachers felt that competition participation conferred a variety of benefits to their students and expressed positive attitudes around the social justice focus of the curriculum. Students provided largely positive feedback on the competition and reported a positive impact on their understanding of social justice and equity. Students also demonstrated high levels of understanding of the ubiquity of coding skills and applications. Taken together, program evaluation results show that this integration of themes is effective in engaging students in difficult conversations about race while building interest in computing.
AU  - Roxanne Moore
AU  - Chalece Delacoudray
AU  - Sunni Newton
AU  - Justina Jackson
AU  - Meltem Alemdar
AU  - Stephen Garrett
AU  - Hilah Barbot
AU  - Jason Freeman
AU  - Joycelyn Wilson
AU  - Sabrina Grossman
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Your Voice is Power: Integrating Computing, Music, Entrepreneurship, and Social Justice Learning
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41759
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41759
ER  -