An official website of the United States government
Broadening interest in computer science is a major research goal of the 21st century. Many initiatives use traditional “hooks” to attract students, such as video games and robotics. Unfortunately, this tends to attract only those already interested in computer science. One alternative domain gaining momentum in computer science education research is music, which is showing interesting results with participants that have previous music knowledge. This paper presents a case study of teaching computer programming with music, in Brazil, to students with limited formal music experience. Through data collected in surveys, focus groups, and researchers’ observations, we show that in this context students can still learn and thrive as musical programmers.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on October 7, 2026
Place-based science from Okinawa: 18th-century climate and geology recorded in Ryukyuan classical music
Indigenous knowledge can record scientific observations of specific “places” that may be difficult to preserve in the geological record. Such a place in “place-based” science highlights issues local to a learner with regard to engaging audiences on the scientific problems relevant to their communities. Here, we focus on a popular seafaring repertoire of Indigenous Ryukyuan classical music, called Nubui Kuduchi and Kudai Kuduchi, to examine place-based observations of 18th-century climate and geology in the Ryukyu Islands (21st-century Okinawa Prefecture, Japan). By comparing the environmental conditions recorded in these songs with those of 20th- and 21st-century studies, we find that surface winds, ocean currents, typhoons, and volcanism from lyrics parallel their respective observations in the scientific record. This novel perspective of art and science highlights the relevance of Ryukyuan classical music in teaching contemporary issues such as climate change and natural hazards. Thus, Ryukyuan Indigenous knowledge can play an innovative role in science engagement for 21st-century Okinawans in Okinawa Prefecture and for their diasporic kinsfolk worldwide.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2305448
- PAR ID:
- 10655603
- Publisher / Repository:
- Copernicus Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geoscience Communication
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2569-7110
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 251 to 266
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Broadening interest in computer science is a major research goal of the 21st century. Many initiatives use traditional “hooks” to attract students, such as video games and robotics. Unfortunately, this tends to attract only those already interested in computer science. One alternative domain gaining momen- tum in computer science education research is music, which is showing inter- esting results with participants that have previous music knowledge. This paper presents a case study of teaching computer programming with music, in Brazil, to students with limited formal music experience. Through data collected in sur- veys, focus groups, and researchers’ observations, we show that in this context students can still learn and thrive as musical programmers.more » « less
-
This material is primarily based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (grant no. DGE-1321845). Addressing complex social-ecological issues requires all relevant sources of knowledge and data, especially those held by communities who remain close to the land. Centuries of oppression, extractive research practices, and misrepresentation have hindered balanced knowledge exchange with Indigenous communities and inhibited innovation and problem-solving capacity in all scientific fields. A recent shift in the research landscape reflects a growing interest in engaging across diverse communities and ways of knowing. Scientific discussions increasingly highlight the inherent value of Indigenous environmental ethics frameworks and processes as the original roadmaps for sustainable development planning, including their potential in addressing the climate crisis and related social and environmental concerns. Momentum in this shift is also propelled by an increasing body of research evidencing the role of Indigenous land stewardship for maintaining ecological health and biodiversity. However, a key challenge straining this movement lies rooted in colonial residue and ongoing actions that suppress and co-opt Indigenous knowledge systems. Scientists working with incomplete datasets privilege a handful of narratives, conceptual understandings, languages, and historical contexts, while failing to engage thousands of collective bodies of intergenerational, place-based knowledge systems. The current dominant colonial paradigm in scientific research risks continued harmful impacts to Indigenous communities that sustain diverse knowledge systems. Here, we outline how ethical standards in researcher practice can be raised in order to reconcile colonial legacies and ongoing settler colonial practices. We synthesize across Indigenous and community-based research protocols and frameworks, transferring knowledge across disciplines, and ground truthing methods and processes in our own practice, to present a relational science working model for supporting Indigenous rights and reconciliation in research. We maintain that core Indigenous values of integrity, respect, humility, and reciprocity should shape researcher responsibilities and methods applied in order to raise ethical standards and long-term relational accountability regarding Indigenous lands, rights, communities, and our shared futures.more » « less
-
Indigenous Peoples across the Arctic have adapted to environmental change since time immemorial, yet recent climate change has imposed unprecedented and abrupt changes that affect the land and sea upon which communities rely. Co-created community-based observing programs offer an opportunity to harness the holistic breadth of knowledge in communities with the goal of tracking Arctic change while simultaneously supporting community priorities and local-scale needs. The Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub (AAOKH) is a network of Iñupiaq observers from northern Alaska coastal communities working in partnership with academic researchers. Here, we describe five core functions that have emerged through AAOKH, which include tracking long-term environmental changes; communicating Indigenous-led observations of the environment and their meaning; place-based and culturally relevant education; enabling scientific and Indigenous Knowledge exchange; and supporting community-led responses to environmental change. We outline and discuss specific actions and opportunities that have been used to increase knowledge exchange of AAOKH observations, make space for the next generation of Indigenous scholars, and create locally relevant data products and syntheses that can inform resource management and community planning. We also discuss our ongoing efforts to increasingly shift toward a knowledge coproduction framework as we plan to sustain AAOKH into the future.more » « less
-
Abstract People’s observations of climate change and its impacts, mediated by cultures and capacities, shape adaptive responses. Adaptation is critical in regions of rainfed smallholder agriculture where changing rainfall patterns have disproportionate impacts on livelihoods, yet scientific climate data to inform responses are often sparse. Despite calls for better integration of local knowledge into adaptation frameworks, there is a lack of empirical evidence linking both smallholder climate observations and scientific data to on-farm outcomes. We combine smallholder observations of past seasonal rainfall timing with satellite-based rainfall estimates in Uganda to explore whether farmers’ ability to track climate patterns is associated with higher crop yields. We show that high-fidelity tracking, or alignment of farmer recall with recent rainfall patterns, predicts higher yields in the present year, suggesting that farmers may translate their cumulative record of environmental knowledge into productive on-farm decisions, such as crop selection and timing of planting. However, tracking of less-recent rainfall (i.e., 1–2 decades in the past) does not predict higher yields in the present, while climate data indicate significant trends over this period toward warmer and wetter seasons. Our findings demonstrate the value of smallholder knowledge systems in filling information gaps in climate science while suggesting ways to improve adaptive capacity to climate change.more » « less
