General Info
This practice concerns an educational scenario where the students get acquainted with the concept of smart musical instruments and become aware of a new relationship between Information Technology and Music. This goal is achieved through a process of exploratory activities within the framework of STEAM methodology with a project which allows the students to develop small-scaled intelligent musical instruments using both the Lego EV3 kit and Python programming. Students are asked to use pre-existing knowledge from different fields (algorithms, programming, engineering, mathematics, physics, music and electronics) in a transverse way that focuses on solving a real problem, that of making musical IT devices for playing music more easily, thus favoring authentic learning. The educational scenario was implemented during the 2019-2020 school year and the students responded positively to the exploratory nature of the scenario, became active and experimented with the construction and the programming. Finally, they managed to learn successfully using the trial- and- error approach.
Audience and Educational Framework
Educational Details
The scenario is implemented in six (6) phases, as described below.
Phase 1 - Groups, Ice-breaking and Brainstorming - (30΄)
- Students are asked to form groups of 3-5 people, all of whom are sharing a Lego EV3 set and work on a computer in which Python has already been installed. The teacher discreetly urges the composition of groups to be done with heterogeneous elements in terms of gender, academic and social skills. After group formation, each group chooses a name, appoints a representative and announces to the rest the name and its members.
- Icebreaking activity: https://www.menti.com/55d36de9 to record how familiar are the students with music and instruments.
- Brainstorming about how we can use Lego EV3 kit to build a smart musical device.
Phase 2 - Retrieval of prior knowledge about music (notes, semitones, frequency, octave, fret and spacing of frets in chord instruments) - (45')
- Using Audacity, which is the most popular free audio software, students are asked to record themselves and process the sounds to find frequency and periods.
- Students study and practice with given worksheets about basic music notions.
Phase 3 - Build and program a Guitar (180')
Students are asked to buld and program a Lego guitar, which has to be fully operational and simulate a real acoustic/electrical guitar (i.e. the neck of the guitar should be divided into frets).
The Lego guitar will use the Lego EV3 Intelligent Brick as a processor to receive the position of the guitarist's hand on the neck of the guitar via the EV3 Infrared Sensor and then play the sounds.
Phase 4 - Build and program a Sequencer (135')
Students are asked to build and program a simple music sequencer that uses colored Lego bricks to put sounds into a sequence that makes up a little song. They will use only a single EV3 Color sensor which can detect 8 different colors.
Lego colored blocks are placed at the end of the sequencer arm, and as each block passes the color sensor, the sound that corresponds with that color is played. The variety of sounds and sequences is endless.
The Lego Sequencer will use the Lego EV3 Intelligent Brick as a processor to do 3 things: control the motor that spins the arm, receive the data from the EV3 Color Sensor, then play the sounds.
Phase 5 - Presentation of results with fun (45΄)
The groups present through a representative their creations to the class. Since learning must be fun, it is time for students to enjoy their creations! Each group will try to play a favorite song either with the guitar or the sequencer. Students have been asked to look for the notes of song in the Web.
Best music player group is announced through a doodle.com poll.
Phase 6 - Summary and Reflection (15΄)
The teacher makes a project summary through the discussion technique. At the same time, he / she asks the students to reflect on the educational process and to express their impressions about planning and organizing the course and the content of the educational scenario, in order to identify possible weaknesses. Finally, as an additional practice activity (at home) the students are encouraged to think and if possible to implement their own smart musical instrument, utilizing the knowledge and experience gained.
At knowledge level
Technology: The use of variables and main programming structures (if/while) in Python
The programming of Lego motors, infrared and touch sensors in Python
The use of audacity in order to find the frequency and period of sound
Engineering: Use of lego stuff in order to construct the musical instruments
Mathematics: Ratio among the music notes and octaves, how to calculate fret spacing for chord instruments
Music: Notes, Semitones, Octave, Frets and spacing between frets
Physics: Frequency, Period, Sound as vibration in the air
At skill level
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build advanced robots with the Lego EV3 kit;
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practice music play with the help of a robot;
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experiment with the use of Lego EV3 sensors and motors;
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test, understand, modify and extend the code of a Python program;
At attitude level
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assess the value of IT technologies in tackling a common problem (build a musical IT device);
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encourage experimentation and testing;
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work collaboratively in the environment of a group;
Hardware
- Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit
Software
- Ev3Dev
- Ev3Python
- Audacity
- Mentimeter
- Edpuzzle
- Doodle
Implementation
(where and how the practice was implemented)
This scenario has been created and evaluated in the context of the Erasmus KA201 program PROBOT (https://probot.smcebi.edu.pl/home), whose topic is related to the development of open educational resources of STE(A)M methodology with Lego EV3 and Python.
The duration of the scenario is estimated at 10 teaching hours (450΄). This length of time is considered sufficient as long as the students have a satisfactory level of the required knowledge. Alternatively, this time can be adjusted according to the learning climate, the students' performance and the results of the mid-term evaluation of the progress that the teacher will make during the execution of the activities.
Prerequisite knowledge
The educational scenario requires students to be familiar with the Lego EV3 kit by having already built simple robots. Also, students should have mastered the basic programming concepts of variable, selection statement (if) and loop testing with condition (while) for writing a program.
Implementation
The educational scenario was implemented during the 2019-2020 school year in the 11th Grade of the Informatics class of 1st General Lyceum of Aigio (24 students), at four (4) 120 min after-school sessions in the school computer lab, with positive results in terms of achieving the desired goals. The students responded to the scenario, became active, experimented with the construction of STE(A)M and by trial and error achieved knowledge successfully. The encouraging elements from the implementation of the scenario indicate the very positive student response, especially for those who appear weak in lessons conducted with the traditional teacher-centered model. This fact is attributed to the exploratory character of the educational scenario that enabled these students to be active and experience the challenge of testing, experimentation thus facilitating learning.
Since the students of the 11th Grade of the Lyceum did not have experience in developing programs in a real programming language such as Python, from the previous classes the implementation of the scenario was planned at a time towards the end of the school year. This was done so that the students would have acquired a relevant knowledge background in problem solving with programming through the course "Principles of Computer Programming" of the 11th class. Although this course is about programming in the pseudo code language, the programming experience gained is very important for the execution of the worksheets on programming the Lego instruments in the Python programming language. Also the implementation of the scenario had preceded related Lego EV3 robot building familiarization activities.
The main difficulty that arose during implementation concerned the transition of students from the pseudo code syntax to the Python syntax. These difficulties were overcome by providing a relevant Python language match-up sheet to the students.
Conclusions
The developed Lego musical instruments are a powerful and useful tool for teaching programming in Python and musical concepts to students. According to the results of the evaluation and through personal contact with the students the results were very positive. Even though most of the students had not come into contact with either complex robotic constructions or with programming in a real programming language, this was not an obstacle in the scenario. Instead, the students found their involvement very interesting which gave them the opportunity to develop their creativity, imagination and knowledge.
As future goal we have set the implementation of more Lego musical devices, as well as the expansion of the existing Lego musical devices with more capabilities.
Educational material/resources (file/URL) accompanying the practice
English
English
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Playing happy birthday music with Lego Guitar at Patras Science Festival 2019 - 1st General Lyceum of Aigio
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Detailed information about the construction of musical instruments, materials needed, suggested activities, students worksheets, grading rubric, glossary and code solutions of the proposed activities.