Beats, Bytes, and First Voice: Coding for Equity in Nova Scotia

Beats, Bytes, and First Voice: Coding for Equity in Nova Scotia

Are you looking for a way to transform the abstract concepts of active citizenship, power dynamics, or "First Voice" into a tangible, creative experience? Your Voice is Power (YVIP) is an innovative educational program that invites students to explore social justice issues through coding and music. In this introductory session, your students will go from being passive consumers of media to active creators and social commentators.

Through the EarSketch platform, students will use Python to remix beats from Indigenous and underrepresented artists, creating an original song that also serves as a method for them to express their perspectives on the world.

EarSketch is a web-based program that requires no student information to log in and no prior coding experience. As long as students have a device connected to the internet, all you need to do is project our lesson onto a screen at the front of the class and our team will take the lesson from there!

If you missed the Teacher PD Workshop describing this lesson, you can watch the recording here. If you watch the PD Recording you will learn how to be entered into a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card.

This lesson contains direct curricular connections to Nova Scotia Citizenship 9, Social Studies 8, English 10, and Mi'kmaw Studies 11.

Prerequisite Skills or Tech Tools Needed: Laptop/Chromebook required for students. Individual Headphones are beneficial. No previous coding experience necessary. 

Thank you Your Voice is Power for funding this co-taught lesson so that it's free of charge for classrooms everywhere!