Category: Computer Science

Lesson Summary

Reading “When the Beat was Born,” we learned about DJ Kool Herc’s journey from Jamaica to the Bronx and how his experiences led to the creation of hip hop through his innovative use of turntables to create “breakbeats.” This musical revolution, facilitated by advancing recording and playback technologies, brought communities together through dance. Today, we have access to Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), allowing hip hop to flourish in the digital age. In this lesson, students will analyze the interactions between individuals like DJ Kool Herc, technological advancements, and the cultural ideas of hip hop. Students will then create a 36-measure hip hop composition using Earsketch, applying programming concepts such as looping, conditional statements, variables, and functions. Through this process, students will reflect on their role as modern-day creators, drawing parallels between their work with digital tools and DJ Kool Herc’s analog innovations. This activity will deepen students’ understanding of how personal creativity, technological progress, and cultural contexts interplay to spark musical revolutions across different eras.

ELA Standards:

Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).

DLCS Standard

6-8.CT.d.4: Implement problem solutions using a programming language, including all of the following: looping behavior, conditional statements, expressions, variables, and functions.

Video

When the Beat was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip-Hop read by Mr. Alicea

Lesson Summary

Pele and Poli’ahu is a folklore story that explained volcanic eruptions as a battle between these two goddesses. This story helped the Hawaiian people make sense of their world through their culture. Nowadays, the location and occurrence of volcanoes and earthquakes can be explained scientifically by analyzing patterns of data.

Your group is being hired by Alpha Action Productions (a movie company) to research a possible filming location for a new action movie. You must research and communicate patterns of scientific evidence that help forecast the likelihood of earthquakes and/or volcanic eruptions in given filming locations.

ELA Standards:

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

5. Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points

STE or Math Standards:

7.MS-ESS3-2. Obtain and communicate information on how data from past geologic events are analyzed for patterns and used to forecast the location and likelihood of future catastrophic events. 

Clarification Statements: 

• Geologic events include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and landslides. 
• Examples of data typically analyzed can include the locations, magnitudes, and frequencies of the natural hazards.

Computer Science (DLCS) Standards:

• Research 6-8.DTC.c 4. Create an artifact, individually and collaboratively, that answers a research question and communicates results and conclusions.

Video

Pele & Poli’ahu read by Chloe Miller

Lesson Summary

Tech-savvy Charlotte loves to code, click, and download. When her parents give her a doll, Charlotte is bored! What do you do with a doll? But after her dog mistakes the doll for a dog toy and shakes it apart, Charlotte goes into tinkering mode and creates … Doll-E 1.0. Can you design an upgrade to one of your toys, so that it can talk like Doll-E 1.0?

ELA Standards:

Grade 3 Reading Standards for Literature [RL] 

Key Ideas and Details

3. Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

Computer Science (DLCS) Standards:

Data [3-5.CT.c]

• 3-5.CT.c.1 Describe examples of databases from everyday life (e.g., library catalogs, school records, telephone directories, contact lists).
• 3-5.CT.c.2 Individually and collaboratively collect and manipulate data to answer a question using a variety of computing methods (e.g., sorting, totaling, averaging) and tools (such as a spreadsheet) to collect, organize, graph, and analyze data.

Programming and Development [3-5.CT.d]

• 3-5.CT.d.1 Individually and collaboratively create, test, and modify a program in a graphical environment (e.g., block-based visual programming language).
• 3-5.CT.d.3 Use interactive debugging to detect and correct simple program errors.

Video

Dolle-E 1.0 by Shanda McCloskey