Introducing breakbeatcode

Imagine you’re in a class. Imagine sitting through a difficult subject, this subject could be math or it might be learning a foreign language. We’ve all had experiences with subjects in school that just didn’t make sense. We didn't connect to it. Without noticing it, it became part of our identity: I am just not good at this.

But what if it was not about your inherent skills. What if it was about how you were taught, how you were engaged, and most importantly, how you were inspired? What if you had identified yourself as a mathematician, a scientist, an engineer from the very start? It was not a question of "if I was an engineer", but a question of when and how?

What if you are from an underserved community?  If you are black, latino, Native American or some other indigenous population that lacks access and privilege. An orphan. A refugee. 

What you see, what you identify with, are athletes, musicians, performers who have been highly successful. Only 0.03% of high school players make it to the NBA! The odds are astronomically small, but this is the only path you see. But this vision of success has become part of your cultural identity.

So if we want to create opportunities for these students in technology,  we need to start by inspiring them to see themselves as being engineers, technology leaders, and entrepreneurs. Building that identity is one part of the opportunity.

We also need to find ways to teach them in a way that is relevant to their world. Let's take coding. In a traditional computer science class, students start by learning the syntax, the rules for coding, and then applying these skills to solve meaningless puzzles. A classic example of a coding exercise is to write a program to check whether a word is a palindrome, meaning that it reads the same backward as forward.  If you are a puzzle solver, this can be fun. You still want to apply your skills to build something cool, like a website or a video game, but for now, you will learn the skill for the sake of learning it. With a little persistence, you start to feel like this is something you are good at. If you are from a place of privilege, it should come as no surprise that you are good at it. You have seen lots of people who can code. So traditional education, while it may not be the most engaging way to learn, it's fine. 

But if you are a student from an underserved community, and you don't identify with the potential of being an engineer, then your default assumption is that you are not good at it. I am just not good at coding. No one I know is good at it. It is not part of my identity. This is just not something people like me do, so it is not for me.

To teach a student with this mindset, then you need to make it highly relevant from the start.  If you don't give them the opportunity to apply those skills in something that is relevant to them, they will go back to that default assumption. I am just not a coder.

Traditional education is not going to work. Writing a program to check whether a word is a palindrome is not relevant. If they fail at it, then that default assumption kicks in. I am not a coder. This is not for me. And they disengage. 

If they are going to learn to code, they need to be engaged immediately in a creative process that is relevant. They need to see, as we like to say, a "pay off".

So how do you engage students from underserved communities to learn and identify with the core skills in STEM in a way that is culturally relevant to them?

What if I could use code to do something that is relevant, like creating music? Music is relevant. People in my community appreciate music, they can play music, some have even become professional musicians. If I can use code to create music, now I am interested.  If I see my peers doing the same thing, it is even more relevant. 

We see this as a huge opportunity. 

This is exactly what we do with breakbeatcode. 

breakbeatcode is a 20% time project at Google that works with organizations that support underserved communities.

We provide teacher training and our curriculum as well as community events like our virtual hackathon. 

The program is supported by over 50 volunteers within Google and in the broader tech and music industries.

Simply, we teach students how to code, create and collaborate through beat making and music production. 

Bringing breakbeatcode to my hometown

Last year, I chose to host an event for my hometown, the Virgin Islands. Damage from two deadly hurricanes caused serious challenges that islanders are still recovering from today. The economy relies heavily on tourism which makes it even more vulnerable to CoVid-19. 22% of the population in the Virgin Islands live in poverty. 

This turned out to be a great program for students to explore the intersection between art, music and technology. We inspired kids and gave them an unique opportunity to code and use their new skills to create music. 

breakbeatcode Hackathons and Partnerships

So we talked about the why and the how, so here is what we do. 

We build partnerships with organizations that focus on underserved communities. Organizations like Orphaned Starfish. 

Orphan Starfish serves over 15,000 children in 29 countries worldwide.  Their students are orphans who have been rescued from the worst possible situations, often human trafficking. 

Their success is inspiring. Over 90% of their graduates attain positive outcomes, including attending university and full time employment.

This is an amazing organization, and a perfect example of a breakbeatcode partner.

In February this year, we co-hosted our first breakbeatcode virtual hackathon with 35 students from Jamaica, Haiti and Indigenous communities in the U.S.  

During the Hackathon, tech coach volunteers from Google provide an introduction to the breakbeatcode curriculum. No prior coding knowledge or experience is required. In breakout sessions, our coding coaches work with students in small groups, 1 coach to 3-5 students, to provide hands-on experience in coding and music production.

By the end of the hackathon, students have a foundation in coding skills and music theory, and they've published their first music tracks. After the event, we have a closing party where a professional DJ remixes the music the students created in a live set.

The hackathon is not just about learning to code and create music. It is also about inspiration. We invite a variety of people  from the tech and music industries, including  entrepreneurs, professional singers, song writers, freestyle rappers, DJs, hip hop artists and artist engineers from Google.

Our guest speakers have included people like Rich Nice, the host of Sway in the Morning on Sirius XM, and producer of hit records with 2Chainz, Nas, and Notorious B.I.G. People like Songwriter and Broadway Star from Hamilton, Syndee Winters. 

They share their stories of how they got started, how they embraced failure, how to be bad at something so you can become great at it, about impostor syndrome, and all of the barriers that our students will need to break through to achieve their dreams. 

So what's next? 

Next week, we'll have our very first hackathon for Africa with over 50 students in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. Over 200 students signed up, so we plan to have plenty more  hackathons there, and for students all over the world.

So what can you do? 

We all have a part to play.

You could volunteer your time to teach students from underserved communities in new and engaging ways. 

If you are a teacher, you could look at ways of integrating culturally relevant curriculum into your classroom. 

You could, like we have at Google, adopt the concept of 20% time projects and create your own initiatives to better support underserved communities, even if it has nothing to do at all with your day job.

So I will leave you with the question: What part do you want to play? How can you inspire students in underserved communities to become the next generation of leaders, engineers and entrepreneurs?