Using Earsketch to Broaden Participation in Computing and Music

EarSketch is a STEAM learning intervention that combines a programming environment and API for Python and JavaScript, a digital audio workstation, an audio loop library, and a standards-aligned curriculum to teach introductory computer science together with music technology and composition. It seeks to address the imbalance in contemporary society between participation in music-making and music-listening activities and a parallel imbalance between computer usage and computer programming. It also seeks to engage a diverse population of students in an effort to address long-standing issues with underrepresentation — particularly of women — in both computing and music composition. This paper summarizes the design of the EarSketch curriculum and learning environment and its deployment contexts to date, along with key findings from a pilot study. It builds upon prior publications by contextualizing the project’s motivations and interpreting its findings in the dual realms of participation in computer science and in music creation.