“Code to Joy” Team’s BeatBlox Advances to NSF VITAL Challenge Finals
Revolutionizing Computer Science Education through Music
LIVE is thrilled to announce that the trans-institutional “Code to Joy” team has advanced to the final round of the NSF Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning (VITAL) Prize Challenge for the innovative design of BeatBlox, a music-based framework for teaching computer science.
Computer science is rapidly becoming a required part of the K-12 curriculum, yet little has been done to captivate students’ attention or prepare teachers to teach it. Enter BeatBlox —an interactive software that revolutionizes the teaching of foundational computer science concepts through the universal language of music. By offering an accessible approach and intuitive design, BeatBlox both engages a wide range of students by tapping into their musical creativity and builds teachers’ confidence through professional development.
BeatBlox uses a block-based visual programming environment called NetsBlox to teach complex computer programming concepts to middle and high school students, by letting them experiment and create music across genres as diverse as classical, hip-hop, pop, and soul. The “blocks” work like legos where each has a computer programming functionality – by connecting the blocks in various ways, students can create rich musical compositions. BeatBlox also utilizes network connectivity to let students create music with their friends, collaboratively combining individual instruments to form bands, orchestras and other kinds of musical groups, and will offer curricular modules to scaffold students in learning specific programming concepts through music interaction.
The Code to Joy team is composed of Computer Science Professor Akos Ledeczi; CS research scientist and musician Will Hedgecock; Education Professor Corbette Doyle; and Blair School of Music Professor Pascal Le Boeuf. As one of 18 advancing teams, Code to Joy will receive an additional $50,000 to continue developing their software while making it market-ready and scalable. The VITAL Prize Challenge will culminate in a live pitch session in 2024 where top teams vie for prizes of up to $250,000. Read more about this latest success here and stay tuned for more news as the challenge progresses…!