Welcome to our Spring 2021 Project Showcase!
Throughout our course students have been creating a variety of projects that require them to demonstrate skills learned. This website has been setup to share their hard work and creativity. There were also a few design competitions along the way too.
Past projects have also been posted for projects from when this curriculum was taught at the University of Mount Union and at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York during previous academic years and during a Kids on Campus summer camp.
CSC 399 Making Music with Computers
Course Description
A course exploring the creative side of computing in the context of music, sounds, images, and other digital artifacts. Emphasis will be given to computer programming for music making, live performance, and interaction. Students will develop several digital artifacts and elementary musical compositions, as well as collaborate on interdisciplinary team projects. Course is open to ALL majors.
There are no prerequisites to taking this course, but don't let that fool you---this is a challenging and rewarding course! Your ability to think abstractly and work creatively will increase, as will your confidence in mastering new technology. The hands-on projects will be a lot of fun, and you will develop fundamental computing skills that will serve you for years to come.
Course Goal
Computing is one of the biggest forces of innovation and societal transformation of today. It has opened up wonderful new ways for people to connect, design, research, play, create, and express themselves. Knowing the fundamentals of computing allows a person to understand and relate to the why’s and how’s of this transformation. Computing is more than just computer literacy but is about the empowering experience that comes when one learns how to solve problems like a computer scientist.
Making Music with Computers provides a bird’s-eye view on the field of computer science and introduces fundamental concepts using the industry-standard programming language Python with a focus on music and interdisciplinary application. We aim to get students excited about computing by showing them the breadth of the field together with the societal transformations and challenges that come along with the technical knowledge---with a musical focus.
The Making Music with Computers curriculum is designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop computational thinking practices and an understanding of the social implications of computing and to engage in programming. There is a strong focus on learning through labs and projects where students have opportunities to create programs and other computational artifacts. Students are engaged in small group and whole class discussions, particularly in relation to social implications topics. The curriculum content is designed to foster collaboration and creativity. Throughout the course, students engage in pair programming, and there are ample opportunities for students to collaborate and be creative in learning the course content. This cousre will do all of this with an emphasis on and through music.