New video: Students of MAPFLC present their projects

Posted on by

A new video was published just a few days ago. The video has students of MAP Family Learning Center (MAPFLC), an out-of-school-time program in Malden, MA, showing their Music Blocks videos. It’s just a little over fifteen minutes and goes through eight different projects you can do with the visual programming language. There’s a little bit of background at the beginning of the video, but, otherwise, the focus is on the kids and their projects.

With no further ado, here is the new video:

Students of MAP Family Learning Center present their Music Blocks projects
play-rounded-fill

Students of MAP Family Learning Center present their Music Blocks projects

Topics covered: Both music and computation

The topics covered are:

  • Musical symmetry
  • Creating rhythms
  • Musical canons
  • Simple guitar string
  • Interactive guitar string
  • Ear trainer
  • Musical alphabet
  • Metronome

The lesson plans behind the video

All of these topics are based upon lesson plans that can be found on the MAPFLC website at https://mapflc.com/lesson-plans/, and the compilations of plans used to guide production of this video can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dGXFtvo47kEtL5ighZFy-PdH0DLMyOC1X9irE0bncCI/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks

There are many people and groups who assisted in the creation of this video. The Sugar Labs (https://sugarlabs.org) is the nonprofit leading development of Music Blocks, as well as other tools for teaching and learning. Malden Cultural Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council (https://massculturalcouncil.org/) helped provide funding for this project. Individuals who generously donated to our Music+Code curriculum video crowdfunding campaign (https://remakemusic.net/campaigns/mus… ) helped us cover some of our expenses (You may still donate, if you are able). The team at Red Shade Studios (https://www.redshade.studio/) went above and beyond what was asked of them to ensure that the video came out well. Rubén Rodríguez (https://quidam.cc/) provided the recorded material of the interview with Devin Ulibarri and Walter Bender. The students of MAP Family Learning Center worked really hard and devoted their time and energy to make this all come together. And the parents of those students supporter their kids, helped coordinate schedules, and brought them in to make this possible. We are grateful to everyone who helped out!

Kid tested and approved

Before we went live with the video, we showed kids drafts of the video. They all responded positively and were excited to see young faces in the videos. My son was present during the video production (although he was a bit too young at the time to take a leadership role), and he stayed very focused for the full duration of the video. And, in the weeks afterward, he began taking his own initiative to create new and challenging projects with Music Blocks.

So, if these test runs are any indication, the videos are promising to be both fun and educational.

My son, watching a draft of the video earlier this year.
My son, showing the giftcard he received for participating in the video. All students received a gift card to our local gallery, Gallery@57.
Kid watching a draft of the Music Blocks video with a gift card in his hand
My son, watching a draft of the video earlier this year, while holding his reward for participating.
Two students watch a video on a screen, attached to the wall of a classroom.
MAP afterschool students were some of the first to watch the later drafts.

Share your thoughts

At any rate, I just wanted to let you know about this new resource. I expect that the video will be helpful for kids, perhaps learning on their own, as well as teachers, who may want to know more about the context of how Music Blocks might fit into a curriculum.

Have thoughts on the video? Please consider dropping us a comment in the box below.