Abstract
Code and Chords believes that showing students ways in which technology, music, and visual art can interact will increase their motivation to explore whichever of those fields they are less familiar with. This is a large part of why the Code and Chords team from the University of St. Thomas has created software that uses real time audio inputs to create a visual representation of a song’s affect. These visuals can be customized through coding to present different displays. The team, excited to bring Code and Chords software to K-12 education, created a workshop designed to motivate students ages 7-17 to explore technology, music, and visual art. The two-hour workshop was broken down into 5 larger sections: 1.) Introduction to Computer Programming, 2.) Coding Shapes, 3.) Coding Colors, 4.) Understanding the Emotion of Music, and 5.) Combining Coding and Music through Code and Chords. This workshop was tested at various informal educational settings. By the end of the workshop, students were able to code shapes and colors, describe technical and emotional aspects of music, and alter the Code and Chords software to better display a song’s affect. The resources provided in the resource exchange will equip educators with activities from the workshop that help students engage with computer engineering, as well as how those activities follow the engineering design process.