This paper discusses a program offered at the University of St. Thomas that promoted interest and confidence in the fundamentals of circuitry and computer programming for girls 13-18 years old. The Code + Chords: Teen Tech program aimed to increase knowledge, awareness, and interest in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) concepts by exposing students to principles of coding and a variety of new technologies in combination with aspects of music.
The program emphasized the creativity and design aspects of engineering, the A in STEAM, which are often excluded from STEM outreach programs. Data was collected through brief Google Surveys, weekly student journals in See Saw, and program leader observations. These provided feedback on the program and allowed for an evaluation of the program’s impacts in key areas as outlined by the research question; “How does a program that combines arts and engineering impact middle and high school girls’ interest in STEAM and their confidence in their own programming and skills and knowledge through a hands-on, out-of-school workshop which focuses on music and coding?” Program Overview Code + Chords: Teen Tech (subsequently referred to as C+C:TT) consisted of five 3-hour workshops on consecutive Saturday mornings. The program ran twice with two different groups of participants, the first beginning in January of 2017 and the second in April of 2017.
There were 22 participants total in this study. All students attending the program were invited to participate in the research. C+C:TT focused on providing hands-on lessons about the fundamentals of circuitry and basics of computer programming through the lens of music, taught by four college-aged student researchers. The program commenced by encouraging students to utilize these newly-learned skills and tools in a collaborative final project, combining what they learned from each of the prior sessions.
Participants consisted of a diverse group of 7th-12th grade girls who expressed an interest in exploring the STEAM fields and/or in furthering their knowledge and confidence in computer programming. Major areas of this program included circuitry, coding, the combination of music and technology, and collaborative challenges.
The overall goals of the program, with upheld focus on increasing interest, knowledge, and confidence in STEAM, were as follows: 1. Increase young women students’ interest levels in STEAM fields 2. Provide an opportunity for young women to engage in coding and use coding as a platform for future STEAM inquiry in college and beyond 3. Increase student self-confidence and critical thinking skills in STEAM/coding 4. Incorporate coding into a topic in which students are interested in and experience daily such as music 5. Help students draw connections between their interests, passions, and STEAM disciplines Rationale for the Program and Literature Review When assessing the global proportion of STEM professional positions between men and women, it is far from equal.
According to the National Science Foundation, men far outnumber women in computer science and engineering fields (NSF Digest, 2013). Aware of this gender gap, President Barack Obama’s administration launched Educate to Innovate in 2009, a campaign striving to help close this STEM gender gap through education, providing more accessible opportunities for all students to participate in and learn about STEM subjects. The C+C:TT program followed this initiative, as it aimed to increase knowledge and awareness of STEAM concept by incorporating art in conjunction with other STEM fields and topics. Promoting STEAM rather than STEM highlights the importance of creativity and design in these fields, which are often perceived as more technical-based. This focus often attracts more young women, propelling them into potential engineering and computer science careers later in life by promoting opportunities for early STEAM education which work to close this stark gender gap. Creativity and music were at the forefront of each element of the program. According to a 2013 study completed at Drexel University, students consistently perform higher in their overall education when they are exposed to the arts (Gregorio, 2013). This finding was reinforced in a study performed by Michigan State University. When reviewing education history of honors graduate students, the study found that nearly 93% of STEM honors students had participated in musical education in the past (Brockmann, 2015).
Based off of this research, it was believed that participants interest in the curriculum would be heightened because not only are art and music an important part of teens’ day-to-day lives, but the inclusion of such topics provided varies educational benefits. Girls were specifically chosen as participants because of the circumstantial and societal barriers surrounding women taking a role in STEAM fields. Countless research studies have documented the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields linking this issue back to the “attitudes and behaviors of girls from elementary school through graduate studies” (White & Wasburn, 2006).
Early on in women’s educational life, they experience “stereotypes, gender bias, and the climate of science and engineering” in their schools that ultimately inhibit their progress within STEM fields (Hill, 2010) and discouraging women from continuing to learn about some of these topics. Because of this, C+C:TT’s ultimate goal as a program was to ignite a curiosity in participants that might not be unveiled in traditional education. With the ever-growing want and appreciation of exposing youth to the field of computer science and programming, this program provided an opportunity for teen girls to gain hands-on experience in these fields. Program Overview and Evaluation Each session was dedicated to introducing program participants to the topic of circuitry and the process of programming. The first three sessions were focused on teaching participants different aspects of technology; Scratch, littleBits, Makey-Makey, Squishy Circuits, Processing, and virtual reality.
The final two sessions were centered around completing an open-ended group project relating to the technology students had been exposed to during the program. The end of the final session was set aside for a program showcase where friends, family, and St. Thomas graduate students came to view projects that participants had created. The program was run by two undergraduate engineering students and two undergraduate STEM education students. Every day began with brainteasers and an icebreaker, usually outside on campus. These were implemented in order to help participants feel more comfortable with each other, hopefully increasing their confidence in participating and asking questions during the sessions. Students also watched an OK Go music video each week to help spark ideas of creative ways to combine music and technology. One student mentioned these videos when discussing her ideas for the final project as she remarked, “I want to do a final project of a video done like OK Go’s videos.” Another similarly shared,
“For the Final Project, I’d love to make a Rube Goldberg Machine, music video (like OK Go), or a combination of both.” The first session was dedicated toward the introduction of the visual programming language Scratch and the electronic circuit tool Makey-Makey. Before using these tools, students were presented with an engineering design process in order to help initiate design thinking and simplify the problem-solving process. To introduce Scratch, participants completed basic tutorials online. Participants were encouraged to participate in the online tutorial called “Make Music” which emphasized the musical applications of Scratch as a programming language.
A “make-your-own” instructional activity asked participants to use their basic Scratch skills to create their own cat and mouse game. Although given guidelines, most students individualized their games in different ways: some added different characters, changed the music, or even designed a way to keep score. After learning Scratch, students were introduced to Makey-Makey. Makey-Makey is a circuit board that connects to a computer via USB and can replace certain elements of the keyboard with different conductive elements which then take on that key’s function.
Students were able to participate in a demonstration of this tool using fruit instead of keyboard keys and conductive dough as keys on an online piano program. Scratch and MakeyMakey work well together, so for the final project of this day, participants were grouped in teams and challenged to create an instrument which combined these two tools. The teams of students were told they would need to create physical instruments using recycled materials and a combination of non-conductive and conductive materials. These conductive materials would be used to work in conjunction with their Makey-Makey to establish a circuit similar to the earlier inquiry opportunities.
Students were also told that the sound output by the instrument would need to come from a program that they created in their teams within Scratch. During this first day, students brainstormed, planned, and began to create these instruments within their groups.
The second session was a continuation of the first as students completed and presented their instruments. Participants were given project expectations of the instrument as well as time and material constraints: required to use Scratch, Makey-Makey, and had to have a sound output of music, whatever way that was interpreted as shown in Image 1. The rest of the requirements and project details were open-ended, spurring a wide variety of finished instruments.
