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MAKE BEATS. LEARN CODE. PROMOTE EQUITY.

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Complete coding a song by remixing stems from songs from our featured Indigenous artists that use their “voice” and include a message.

AGENDA

Understanding Reconciliation
Preparing the Final Song
Adding Voice to Your Code
Debugging Your Song
Check Your Song's Characteristics

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MODULE 8 - CODE YOUR VOICE

OBJECTIVE

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Activity 1: Understanding Reconciliation

GROUP DISCUSSION

1. What have you learned about the Inequalities and injustices that Indigenous people have faced and continue to face in Canada?

2. How are these injustices similar and different to the injustices faced by African American people in the United States?

3. What are some examples of initiatives aimed at promoting equality in Canada? (Example: Orange Shirt Day)

4. What does Reconciliation mean to you?

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Instructor Dialogue

This is your opportunity to use YOUR VOICE AS POWER!

You have been learning how to code a song in EarSketch—remixing stems from Indigenous artists that use your “voice” to promote equity! Now that you have more skills and knowledge, you will be able to build a song (or finalize your existing song) to submit for the final competition (if you wish).

There are two entry categories - You can identify as an Indigenous student or as an Ally of Indigenous students.

Let's have a final look at some materials first before we code our final song and submit!

In small groups of 3-4, discuss each of these questions. You can share what you talked about with the class after each question.

What have you learned about the Inequalities and injustices that Indigenous people have faced and continue to face in Canada?
How are these injustices similar and different to the injustices faced by African American people in the United States?
What are some examples of initiatives aimed at promoting equality in Canada? (Example: Orange Shirt Day)
What does Reconciliation mean to you?

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Activity 2: Preparing the Final Song!

Activity 3: Add Voice to Your Code

Activity 4: Debugging Your Song

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2. ADDING POWER TO VOICE

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Activity 2: Preparing the Final Song

Reflect on the final song you want to create, will you: Revise and finalize your existing song OR Create a new song

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Activity 2: Preparing the Final Song (cont'd)

Top-down approach	Bottom-Up Approach	Mixed Approach
Sketch Out the Song Structure First You might start by defining your song structure and sketching out the parts you want. Intro Verse 1 Chorus Transition Verse 2 Chorus Transition Bridge Verse 3 Outro	Build the Parts First You might want to build parts first—like the chorus or intro—and then assemble them into a song afterwards!	A Mix of Both A combination of top-down and bottom-up!

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Activity 2: Preparing the Final Song (cont'd)

In your Student Coding Workbook, reflect on the final song you want to create, will you: Use Hard-Coded Functions? def intro(): OR Functions with Variables? def chorus(start, end): OR A mix of both?

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Activity 2: Preparing the Final Song (cont'd)

In your Student Coding Workbook, reflect on the final song you want to create, will you: Add more tracks? Change the tempo? Add any additional comments?

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MAKE IT A VIRAL HIT

Choose a form and structure for your song (for example: ABAB)
Be personal. Write from the heart. Tell a story.
Create repetition - Include an earworm or hook. Make your melody memorable.
Build variation in your song. Include contrast and change between minor and major chords.
Match beats between verses. Keep your verses to the same number or a multiple of a number of beats.
Maybe try some of the other 'effects' from Extension B in Module 4!

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Instructor Dialogue

Here are some tips from music producers on what makes a hit song along, with some other examples of EarSketch functions to advance your code.

The slide includes a link to Extension B in Module 4 where you can look up effects you can add to your song such as changing volume levels, adding an echo, changing tempo mid song

Instructor Cue

Your students may or may not have a complete song at the end of class

However, encourage your students to keep working on their song: adding lyrics, uploading sounds, adding more tracks, and learning some new coding techniques.

Encourage them to enter the competition, take a look at some of the past winners, look at the grade levels, read the write ups. Many of these students were first time coders!
Share the submission deadline - End of June 2025

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Activity 3: Add Voice to Your Code

Add comments to highlight sections that show the 4 R’s: respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility	# This lyric is an example of # Institutional Racism, prison Pipeline �fitmedia(ENTREP_VOX_BK_LETOUT,18,6,14)
Add comments to express your voice (through comments or selected lyrics) or the voice of your community.	# I Chose this lyric because…�# This drum beat makes me think of…

ADD VOICE TO YOUR CODE

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Instructor Dialogue

Remember how we learned about comments on Day 1? You learned that comments can help the programmer explain the message or purpose of their code. Now it is time to apply this learning.

Use the checklist in your Student Coding Workbook Module 8 - Activity 3: Add Voice to your code as a guide

Open the Your Voice is Power script containing your song.
Look at your code and listen to your music.
Write comments in your song.

You can write comments anywhere in your script, but you must first write the hashtag (#) sign. Comments help to structure your song and communicate your voice as a coder and programmer.

Add comments to :

Highlight sections that show the 4 R’s: respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility
Express your voice (through comments or selected lyrics) or the voice of your community.

Instructor Cue

Go through the following slides to review suggested comments to add to their scripts then give students time to review and write comments for their code.

There is no minimum number of comments to enter the competition, but comments help the judges understand the code, music selection and message of the student’s song.

Students do not need to have comments for every line of code but should include comments where they are explaining their message, defining the structure of their song, or describing the flow of their code.

We also encourage students to use the print command to explain the song’s message . The print command allows their message to be displayed in the console when the judge/listener runs their code.

For example:

print("This song expresses my feelings about racism in my community.")

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Include a comment to let us know your target audience and the theme of your song.	# author: <Student Name> # Audience: Family and Friends # My song is to explain that there is # ongoing racial inequity in our community
You can use the print function to print the purpose of your song in the console.	print("My song is to explain that there is ongoing racial inequity in our community")
Include a comment to tell us if you are speaking as an ally, an activist, or as yourself?	# author: <Student Name> # writing as an ally/activist/self

Activity 3: Add Voice to Your Code

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ADD VOICE TO YOUR CODE

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Activity 3: Add Voice to Your Code

Include comments to give credit to the artists of the sound clips used in your song.	# Audio clips used for remix from: # Jayli's song “Child of the Government” # Dakota Bear “Freedom”

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ADD VOICE TO YOUR CODE

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DEBUG Your Code

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Activity 4: Debugging Your Song

FINAL COUNTDOWN

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Run your code.
Check the console - are there any errors?

If there are no errors, move on to Part 2 (Check Your Song's Characteristics) in the song submission process.
If you have an error in your code, continue to step 3 in the debugging process.

Read the console for clues (such as line number or type of error).
Locate the error in your code: If the console provided a line number, take a look at that line and the previous line in your code. Check any arguments carefully. You can also comment out the lines of code one at a time to identify where a possible error could be.
Print debugging can also be used to locate an error. Insert print statements throughout your code to obtain the value of variables and check your logic.
Squash the bug: Check for syntax errors, like unclosed parentheses, quotations, or brackets. Edit the code, and run it to verify its correctness.
Ask for help: If you find you have spent too much time on a bug, then ask someone for help!
A fresh pair of eyes can do wonders for spotting mistakes.

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DEBUGGING YOUR CODE

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Activity 5: Does Your Song Meet the Requirements?

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3. CONSOLIDATION / REFLECTION

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Activity 5: Does Your Song Meet the Requirements?

Go through the checklists in your Student Coding Workbook to ensure your song is ready to submit to the competition.

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Is your song a minimum of 30 seconds (16 measures) and a maximum of 3 minutes? Does your song use at least 5 unique music tracks? Does your song include at least one sound clip (stem) from an Indigenous artist featured in the program (Aysanabee, Dakota Bear, Dr. Duke Redbird, Jayli Wolf, Samian)? Play your song — Does the song sound like a remix of one of the artists? Have you changed the style, tempo, order of beats? Have you mixed other sounds with their stems? Do you have any sounds that are not from the EarSketch library or that were recorded by you? If so, did you attribute the source in the comments? Any copyrighted sound clips that you do not have rights to must be removed from your song. Information on copyright can be found here.

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Activity 5: Does Your Song Meet the Requirements? - MUSIC

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Does your song include the EarSketch API function fitMedia to insert sound clips? Does your song use variables? Does your song use comments to describe the code and document your message in the song? TIP: Share your code with a peer (if possible). Do they understand the flow of the code? Are there places where additional comments would help them understand your code?

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Activity 5: Does Your Song Meet the Requirements? - CODE

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To be eligible for the Grand Prize, you must also meet the following requirements: Does your song include custom/user-defined functions? Your song must score 60 points with the code indicator, you can score 60 points by having two user-defined functions

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Activity 5: Does Your Song Meet the Requirements? - CODE

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Does your song include a message or call to action that promotes equity? Does your song demonstrate student awareness or analysis of racial injustice? Have you prepared a short reflection about your song to include with the submission form?

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Activity 5: Does Your Song Meet the Requirements? - PROMOTE EQUITY

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Copyright protects the creator of a piece of original work to have the exclusive right to reproduce and use that work. Have you used sounds outside the Earsketch music library (for example, uploading stems from your computer)? NO - All music samples in the sound library are licensed, so you can use them as you wish in your music. No action required YES Did you upload your own sounds and vocals? No action required. Did you upload sounds from other songs and websites? Check the copyright and ensure they fall under a Creative Commons license (such as sound clips on Freesound) or a free culture license. You cannot use samples or covers you do not have the rights to. Click here for more info on Copyright.

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Activity 5: Does Your Song Meet the Requirements? - COPYRIGHT

Instructor Dialogue

A quick note on copyright.�All music samples in the sound library are licensed, so you can use them as you wish in your music.

However, this is not true with all music. All music has copyright (in fact two copyrights); rights to a song and rights to a sound recording.

Copyright protects the creator of a piece of original work to have the exclusive right to reproduce and use that work.

If you are using sounds outside of the EarSketch library (for example, uploading stems from your computer), you must check the copyright and look for a Creative Commons license (such as sound clips on Freesound) or a free culture license.

You may record your own instruments and vocals, but you cannot upload samples or covers they do not have the rights to. Click here for more info on Copyright.

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NOW, GO FINISH CODING

YOUR SONG!

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When you are ready to submit, get the song link!

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SUBMIT YOUR SONG bit.ly/yvipsubmit23 Deadline: June 30, 2026.	Sign up here to be notified of all Competition announcements and never forget that… Now, give yourself a round of applause!

TIME TO SUBMIT!

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Instructor Dialogue

Congratulations! You are ready to submit your song!

Use the SUBMIT button on the YVIP Home Page to submit your song.

If you’d like to work on it later and submit it closer to the deadline, you may!

When you are ready to submit you will need a link to the song, select SHARE and then select the LET OTHERS VIEW tab to access a read-only link judges can use to see your code and listen to your song.

The deadline is End of June 2025

Even if you aren’t sure if your song will win, you should submit because submitting is sharing your voice with judges and the artists, and YOUR VOICE IS POWER!

Instructor Cue

Encourage students to submit their songs. It may be helpful to walk through the submission form with the students so the students understand what they need to specify at each stage of the submission process.

Congratulations! You did an awesome job implementing Your Voice is Power.

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THANK YOU!

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