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STEAM

Maker culture and music education: Programming a digital ornament with music and lights with MakeCode

How diverse are the forms of musical engagement that we support in music programs? I think music education, particularly in K-12 contexts could be much more expansive in terms of the types of musical engagement we include or address in music programs. Combining music education and maker culture as STEAM education has great potential. Here’s a post on combining music, computational thinking, and physical computing as a form of arts-driven STEAM education. TL;DR Last year (2018), I created a digital… Read More »Maker culture and music education: Programming a digital ornament with music and lights with MakeCode

NAfME 2018: STEAM, Maker Culture, Music Education

This post contains resources and references from our NAfME 2018 presentation: STEAM, Maker Culture, and Music Education presented by: Evan Tobias (Assoc. Prof. Music Education, Arizona State University) Ryan Bledsoe (PhD Student, Arizona State University) Nathan Botts (PhD Student, Arizona State University & Museum Educator @ Musical Instrument Museum) Jenny Madruga Chavez (BM Music EdAlumn and Masters in Vocal Performance @ Arizona State University & Current Music Teacher in Phoenix, AZ) Resources Access resources on STEAM and Maker Culture curated by the… Read More »NAfME 2018: STEAM, Maker Culture, Music Education

CS For All: Creating music with code!

While science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is still a dominant paradigm in contemporary society, many people are engaging in STEAM (STEM with the arts included) in a robust manner. President Obama’s recent announcement of a Computer Science for All initiative (and $4 billion in funding) is an important development in STEM education as well as the potential for a larger presence of STEAM in instances where the arts might otherwise be absent.

CS For All and related initiatives provide music educators with an opportunity to take a lead role in identifying the potential for STEAM and substantive connections between music engagement, teaching, and learning and computer science.

Creating music with programming and code is just one approach to having people engage with aspects of STEAM and make connections to computer science. Read More »CS For All: Creating music with code!