In The News
Hip-Hop Paves the Way to Computer Coding Comprehension
November 17, 2020
Code Beats, a VCU professor’s course that teaches coding through music, is introducing Richmond middle school students to a new way of learning computer programming.
By Dina Weinstein
University Public Affairs
Virginia Commonwealth University
“On a Thursday afternoon, David Shepherd, Ph.D., an associate professor of computer science in the VCU College of Engineering, shifts away from his university duties to teach computer coding to 30 Richmond sixth-graders from the STEM Academies at Thomas H. Henderson and Martin Luther King Jr. middle schools by leading them in lessons taking apart and putting together hip-hop rhythms, beats and melodies.”
…
“Code Beats began last year as part of a capstone project Shepherd led for VCU engineering students with the goal of a one-day workshop for kids. Instead, because of COVID-19, Shepherd’s group developed Code Beats as a summer camp. Shepherd also taught the program to adults through the Northern Virginia-based Computer CORE job-training nonprofit.”
Read more about the VCU program and how Computer CORE fits in.