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MODULE 4 OVERVIEW
MODULE CHECK IN
What are some of the roles people can play in the fight for racial justice? How does STEM and Computer Science support those roles? With the theme, every person/part has a purpose, students also learn about song structure and learn how to code sections with custom functions.
OBJECTIVE
Students will discover the various roles people can play in the fight for racial justice and dissect Pharrell's song structure and begin to plan/code the different parts of their song.
MAKE BEATS
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Sections are related musical units consisting of multiple measures. Each section expresses an idea or feeling
A song is a musical composition with an arrangement in sections. One of the most popular song structures is the verse/chorus.
Transitions are short passages of music that combine musical sections
Verses complete the body of the song and provide variety between repeated choruses. Verses generally share the same melody (with slight variations), but different lyrics
The chorus is the section of the song that has the same lyrics and melody repeated throughout the song between verses. This is your “Earworm” --what is most memorable from your song.
LEARN CODE
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Custom functions are written by the programmer to accomplish a specific task, often a task that must be done more than once. In EarSketch, you can use a custom function to code sections as an efficient way to create song structure.
A custom function to define a section will have two parameters - startMeasure and endMeasure
PROMOTE EQUITY
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There are a variety of ways to act, advocate, and be an activist for racial justice. You can fight for racial justice in a variety of ways.
An Ally is a person who recognizes their privilege based on race, class, gender, etc. and is committed to work in unity with oppressed groups in the fight for social justice.
An Activist is a person who uses their voice and power to promote specific political and/or social changes in policies and practices.
Create procedures with parameters to organize code and make it easier to reuse (6-8)
Create prototypes that use algorithms to solve computational problems by leveraging prior student knowledge and personal interests.
Construct solutions to problems using student-created components, such as procedures, modules and/or objects. (11-12)
Use and adapt classic algorithms to solve computational problems (11-12)
Complete all student work in the notebook as a student:
Review the OUTKAST Imagination Rubric, read the Verse 2 lyrics, and watch the video, Verse 3 (Part 1) - Decoded.
Watch the video on Song Structure.
Here is an additional tutorial on Song Structure
Review the EarSketch platform. Practice writing a custom function and calling that function.
Duplicate the Day 4 Exit Ticket Form to prepare for class.
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The Teacher Guide follows the Student Workbook
Day 4 includes pages 16-18 of the Student Workbook
Print and distribute (or post in online resources/Google Classroom) “Your Voice is Power” Student Workbook
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All students will need to have access to a computer with an internet connection. EarSketch will not work on mobile devices. The site earsketch.gatech.edu will need to be whitelisted by your district IT department.
LESSON
WELCOME BACK!
Today is Day 4 of the Your Voice Is Power Learning Experience. We will continue to investigate how music, computer science, and entrepreneurship are pathways to promote racial equity, and you’ll continue to gain skills to help you code your final song for the competition.
Today, you will get to meet a few more activists/allies and see how everyone can play a part in the movement toward racial equality. You’ll also get a chance to examine the different parts of a song. Whether it’s a song or a movement, every part (or person!) has its purpose!
GETTING STARTED
To warm up today, read through Pharrell’s third verse. For each set of lines, write if this line describes a builder (something that helps) or barrier (something that hurts) for Black Entrepreneurship. Explain WHY you think that. Then, answer the questions that follow.
Listen to Verse 3 in Entrepreneur.
Decode Pharrell's Message in your Student Workbook.
Does the verse symbolize a barrier (hurts) or builder (helps) for Black entrepreneurship? What principles from OUTKAST Imagination do you see in this verse? What message is Pharrell sending in this verse? Why would he put this at the end of the song?
TIP
Need a reminder of what the OUTKAST Imagination Rubric is? Click to see the rubric.
VERSE
Uh, lies told to you, through YouTubes and Hulus
Shows with no hues that look like you do
Black Twitter, what's that? When Jack get paid, do you?
For every one Gucci, support two FUBUs
Sippin' crip-a-Cola consumer and a owner, uh
'Til we all vertically integrated from the floor up
D'Usse pourer, sip Ace 'til I throw up
Like gang signs 'cept I bang mines for both ya
Student Workbook page 4
DECODE THE MESSAGE
Does this symbolize a barrier (hurts) or builder (helps) for Black entrepreneurship?
What principles from OUTKAST Imagination do you see in this Verse?
What message is Pharrell sending in this verse? Why would he put this at the end of the song?
Share your analysis with the class!
LYRIC REVEAL
Before we move on, let's see what Dr. Wilson would say about these lyrics!
Slow down and speed up the Chorus of Entrepreneur (1:13-1:36) by clicking on the gear icon at the bottom of the YouTube video player and select "Playback Speed" to adjust the speed.
Introduction to the OUTKAST Imagination Rubric
1:00
PROMOTE EQUITY
Tomorrow, you will get to code and create your song to promote equity. No matter who you are or where you come from, you can participate in the fight to promote equity in our world. There are a variety of ways to act, advocate, and be an activist for racial justice. You can fight for racial justice in a variety of ways.
EVERYONE
can
PLAY A PART
in the work to promote equity.
YOU
can
FIGHT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
in a variety of ways.
Define ally and activist and write the terms in your Student Workbook.
Student Workbook page 5
DEFINITION
TERM
ALLY
ACTIVIST
Tomorrow, you will get to code and create your song to promote equity. No matter who you are or where you come from, you can participate in the fight to promote equity in our world. There are a variety of ways to act, advocate, and be an activist for racial justice. You can fight for racial justice in a variety of ways.
Similar to the day prior, take the time to quickly divide students into groups and assign an entrepreneur profile to each group. Together students will note important facts about each person and discuss questions about each of their beliefs and mindsets.
Why are they considered an entrepreneur? How do they fight for social justice? How do they use computer science to make positive social impact? What may motivate him/her/them to do so based on what you've read/listened to?
GROUP
NAMES
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
PROFILE
Nunnally Twins
Kezia Williams
Diana Jue & Jack Stenson
Matt Wisdom
Lisa Skeete Tatum
Libby Fischer
Everette Taylor
Ben Ishfin & Leah Lykins
Jonathan Chin
Jake Parway
Discuss with your group and complete the following questions in your Student Workbook.
Student Workbook page 4
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
I selected ________________________________________________
Why is your selected person(s) considered an "entrepreneur"?
How do they fight for social justice?
How do they use computer science to make a positive social impact?
What may motivate him/her/them to do so based on what you've read / listened to?
Let's all come back together as a whole group and share a quick introduction to your entrepreneur and how they fight for social justice.
Introduction to the OUTKAST Imagination Rubric
SONG STRUCTURE
In the same way we’ve seen that every person plays a part, we will also learn how every part of a song plays a part. I am going to open up (Choose an example student)’s “Your Voice is Power Script” in EarSketch. When I run their script, listen to the code. As you listen, think about the music and these questions:
Does the code sound like a song you might hear on the radio/YouTube? If it doesn’t, what is missing?
What makes up a song/musical composition? What makes a piece of music a composition rather than a few beats strung together?
The major difference between your code and a musical composition / song you might hear on the radio is structure. Most songs you hear (on the radio / YouTube) have an arrangement that includes sections, where you will hear different and repeating forms through one piece of music.
The most popular song structure is the verse-chorus structure. Often, the verse / chorus structure is also called ABAB where the song cycles between verse and chorus. This is common with many Hip-Hop songs, where the verse (A) is spoken, and the Chorus (B) is sung. As a song moves from section A to section B, there is often a change in tempo, beat, or musical notes. Think about the Entrepreneur song, do you think it fits the verse/chorus structure? Do you notice changes between different song sections?
SIMPLE SONG STRUCTURE
VERSE
VERSE
CHORUS
CHORUS
A
A
B
B
Do you think Entrepreneur fits the verse / chorus structure?
Do you notice changes between different song sections?
Let's all come back together as a whole group and share your thoughts on the song structure in Entrepreneur.
Let’s learn more about these sections of a song and try to see if we can identify them in Entrepreneur. Write the term on page 18 in your Student Workbook.
Student Workbook page 5
DEFINITION
TERM
CHORUS
VERSE
But Entrepreneur (and many other songs) are often more complex than just two different repeating sections. Songs can also have more complex structures. A song could have a Bridge added toward the end to build up to the final chorus. Or, it could have an intro and outro section.
MORE COMPLEX SONG STRUCTURE
VERSE
CHORUS
VERSE
CHORUS
BRIDGE
CHORUS
A
B
A
B
C
B
INTRO
PRE-CHORUS
VERSE 1
CHORUS
PRE-CHORUS
BRIDGE
CHORUS
VERSE 3
VERSE 2
CHORUS
OUTRO
DEFINITION
TERM
BRIDGE
TRANSITIONS
INTRO
OUTRO
ANALYZING THE STRUCTURE OF ENTREPRENEUR
Let’s now analyze the structure of “Entrepreneur”. As we listen to the song out loud, use the labels, intro, verse, chorus, bridge, and outro, to label the different parts of the song.
Listen to the lyrics of Entrepreneur as you follow along on page 18 and 19 in your Student Workbook.
Introduction to the OUTKAST Imagination Rubric
1:00
Let’s learn more about these sections of a song and try to see if we can identify them in Entrepreneur. Write the term on page 18 in your Student Workbook. Click on each box to reveal the correct answer or click the Reveal All button to show all the answers.
Student Workbook page 5
LYRICS
SECTION
INTRO
0:00-0:28
VERSE
0:29-0:51
CHORUS
0:52-1:13
VERSE
1:14-1:26
CHORUS
1:27-1:36
VERSE
1:37-2:44
VERSE
2:44-3:30
OUTRO
3:30-4:30
OUTRO
Let's discuss as a class what you noticed in each section of the Entrepreneur song.
What did you notice about the sections of the Entrepreneur Song? Did they follow a specific order?
ANSWER
Intro, outro, bridge, repeating sections
Did you hear repetition of melody (musical sounds) or lyrics within the song? Why do you think songs include repeating sections?
ANSWER
Repetition hooks the listener, gets the song in the listener's head, earworm
Did you hear a contrast between the verse and the chorus? Why is there contrast between sections?
ANSWER
To capture the attention of the listener, add variety to the song
PLAN YOUR SONG
It’s time to transform our code into a song. How do we do this without writing lines and lines of code? We already have ~40 lines of code and we only coded sixteen measures. Imagine you want to code a 2 minute song --- you might end up with 150 lines of code! Woah-- that is exhausting to think about.
Mike is feeling the same way. He is ready to finish the whole song of Entrepreneur, but needs Chalece to show him how to do it... so he is not coding all day. Watch the video to learn about the coding magic of “Custom Functions” to provide structure to your song.
Let's listen to Mike and Chalece show us how to create structure to our song.
Introduction to the OUTKAST Imagination Rubric
1:00
Wasn’t that amazing? Chalece was able to define her own functions to create a verse and a chorus without writing lines and lines of code. Now, it is our turn to practice writing these custom functions in EarSketch. You have already used many functions in EarSketch, such as fitMedia(), setTempo (), but now you will actually create your own functions.
Add the following key term to your toolbox on page x in your Student Workbook.
Student Workbook page 5
DEFINITION
TERM
CUSTOM FUNCTIONS
Custom functions are an effective way to code sections, helping to avoid repetitive code Functions are named by the programmer, can have any number of inputs (arguments), and can be called anywhere in a script. Functions not only make your code shorter, it gives you the opportunity to create complex code that can be repeated easily without error.
Look at the example function below. All functions need to be defined and include inputs. You will need to place a colon at the end of your function and then indent your tracks(code) below the function.
function name
inputs
colon
indented
function body
Programmer decides on
function name
(verse, chorus, sectionA)
Functions need to be
defined
and
include
inputs
Must have a
colon
at the end of the
function