BridgeTO Youth × Amazon · 2020 - now
BridgeTO Hacks: teaching Toronto kids to code by remixing music
With BridgeTO and Amazon I create the curriculum and run hackathons where students from underserved Toronto communities learn to code by remixing songs in Python.
- role
- tech director & mentor
- partners
- Amazon Future Engineer, TakingITGlobal
- what I do
- curriculum, teaching, running the event, mentoring teams
- also
- mentor since 2020, marketing lead since 2021
from earsketch import *
setTempo(120)
fitMedia(drums, 1, 1, 9)
fitMedia(bass, 2, 3, 9)
for bar in range(1, 9, 2):
makeBeat(clap, 3, bar, "0---0---0-0-0---")An illustration of what students build, a few lines of Python that lay down a beat.
What BridgeTO is
BridgeTO Youth is a Toronto non-profit that gives underserved young people programs, mentorship and a community to grow in. I started volunteering as a mentor in 2020, became marketing lead in 2021, and now serve as tech director.
The hackathons
Twice a year we partner with Amazon to run a hackathon for underserved students. BridgeTO Hacks: Your Voice is Power, our edition of the Your Voice is Power program, was co-hosted with Amazon Future Engineer and TakingITGlobal. Students learn Python by remixing music: they write code that lays down beats, layers samples and builds a track. The day runs like a playlist, with six coding modules, talks from guest speakers, a working session, judging, and winners, and the strongest remixes go to a final round. One of our top 6 finalists’ remixes became the background music for our thank-you video to the teachers who joined us.
What I do
- Create the curriculum. I design the lessons and starter projects students use to build their remix, so every concept pays off in something they can hear.
- Teach. I teach the coding sessions and help teams when they get stuck.
- Run the event. I help run the hackathons with Amazon and our partners.
- Mentor. I’ve mentored BridgeTO students since 2020, well beyond the hackathons.
Why music
A for loop is abstract until you hear it repeat a drum pattern. Music gives students instant, physical feedback on their code, and it lets them bring their own taste into the room, which matters for kids who have never been told that computer science is for them.