A Middle School After-School Pilot Program Integrating Computer Programming and Music Education

该项目的目标是研究如何将基本计算技能的教学融入课后合唱项目。 该团队将研究如何适应迄今为止在NSF资助的表演项目中开发的跨学科，计算+音乐活动，现在将中学生引入非正式的课后合唱计划中。他们将研究如何利用音乐的普遍吸引力，帮助那些通常回避技术研究的学生通过编程合唱音乐在STEM（科学，技术，工程和数学）中站稳脚跟。 它由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深入学习的理解。该团队将使用定性和定量的混合方法来研究四个研究问题：-中学生能否遵循从唱歌到数字化声音再到音乐的联系，并学会使用他们喜欢唱的歌曲编程？ 为了鼓励学生在自己的计算机上参与操纵声音和编程音乐，该方法将使用Audacity和Scratch，这两个免费的音乐录制，编辑和生成平台。 该团队将研究音乐编程如何帮助他们通过评估他们可以学习编码的程序的复杂性和有效性来获得STEM技能。对他们的各个部分进行编程可以帮助学生学习用三部分和四部分和声唱歌吗？主要关注的是STEM的学习，但对这个问题的研究将评估编程技能是否也可以帮助学生学习音乐。什么样的资源，模型和工具（RMT）是必要的，将STEM教育融入中学课后合唱计划？ 该团队将与当地中学合作，研究将计算技术整合到课后合唱项目中，而不会破坏他们的音乐重点。 他们将确定合唱教师需要什么，以便进行这种整合，他们将设计和评估技术，为学生的合唱经验增加STEM技能。与学生的种族和/或文化背景相匹配的成年人的参与能否对“像我这样的人不（或不能）这样做”产生积极影响？“这种信念经常扼杀吸引代表性不足的群体加入STEM的努力？ 他们将积极寻求让代表性不足的群体的学生参与该计划，方法是从这些参与音乐和计算的群体中招募成年榜样。 他们将使用态度调查来评估这些成年人是否对学生的自我效能感和“像我这样的人”综合症有任何影响，这种综合症阻碍了一些人从事STEM。

The goal of the project is to research ways in which the teaching of basic computing skills can be integrated into after-school choral programs. The team will study how to adapt the interdisciplinary, computing + music activities developed to date in their NSF-funded Performamatics project with college-aged students to now introduce middle school-aged students to computing in an informal, after-school choral program. They will investigate how to leverage the universal appeal of music to help students who typically shy away from technical studies to gain a foothold in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) by programming choral music. It is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The team will use a qualitative and quantitative, mixed-methods approach to study four research questions:- Can middle school-aged children follow the connections from singing to digitized sound to MIDI and back to music and learn to program using the songs they like to sing? To encourage students to become involved with manipulating sounds and programming music on their own computers, the approach will employ Audacity and Scratch, two free music recording, editing, and generation platforms. The team will study how well programming of music helps them acquire STEM skills by assessing the complexity and efficacy of the programs they can learn to code.- Can programming their individual parts help students learn to sing in three- and four-part harmony? The main focus is on learning of STEM, but research on this question will evaluate whether programming skills can help students learn about music too.- What resources, models, and tools (RMTs) are necessary to integrate STEM education into a middle school after-school choral program? The team will work with local middle schools to research techniques for integrating computing into after-school choral programs without disrupting their musical focus. They will identify what choral teachers need in order to do this integration, and they will devise and evaluate techniques for adding STEM skills to the students' choral experience.- Can the involvement of adults who match the students' racial and/or cultural backgrounds have a positive effect on the "people like me don't (or can't) do that?" belief that so often stifles efforts to attract underrepresented groups to STEM? They will actively seek to involve students of underrepresented groups in the program by recruiting adult role models from these groups who are involved with both music and computing. They will use attitudinal surveys to assess whether these adults have any effect on the students' self-efficacy and the "people like me" syndrome that hinders some from engaging in STEM.