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The students participating in the six-week program led by the David T. Kearns Center, spent the summer engaged in many different activities – one of which was creating an interactive collage they programmed using a Circuit Playground Express (CPX) microcontroller. The activity was led by Kearns Center’s Assistant Director of Diversity in STEM, Danielle Daniels, who says she wanted to use the activity to show students ways that STEM tools can be used to serve them.

The activity introduced the students to fundamental coding concepts and the various inputs and outputs on the CPX microcontroller. Students were given cardboard and craft materials and were asked to create a collage and then integrate the CPX in a creative way. Daniels taught the students how to program the CPX microcontrollers to light up and play music/sounds to enhance their artwork.  “Most of the kids in the program don't identify as ‘STEM kids’ and tend to check out when they hear we're doing coding” Daniels explains. “By starting with something more traditionally creative, it gets the students invested in what we're doing early on. Sometimes that momentum will carry through the entire coding portion of the activity!” That was true for Upward Bound student Zerenity Clarke who doesn’t plan to go into a STEM field after high school, but very much enjoyed the activity. "I personally enjoyed when we got to code and decorate our own project and how we were given great instructions, and we were also presented with the opportunity to do everything entirely on our own" says Clarke.

Daniels says this was the first time she had presented a coding activity for all the students in the summer program and says the feedback she got from the students was great. “Normally students opt into an activity. I was excited that the majority (possibly all) students were participating. The students were able to keep the CPX so several students continued to ask, "How do I...?" questions about the CPX for days after the activity so they could expand their projects at home” Daniels said. Those types of questions can be a game changer for students who are interested in STEM but maybe never had thought about going into a STEM career. “A lot of STEM education tends to focus on funneling kids into STEM careers. That's great for kids who want to go into STEM, but it leaves out a significant population of students who don't! I want all students to recognize ways STEM tools can be used to support their interests” Daniels says. "I learned how simple coding is [during the activity]. In movies and school, they make it seem like you have to be a math whiz to code” says Clarke who adds that in addition to learning new skills and concepts she also gained confidence in using different technology. “I also was really bad at using computers, but working with Upward Bound helped me with that, it also helped me learn the shortcuts on a laptop" Clarke said.

Daniels says the activity was inspired by one created by Evelyn Lienhard at Assemble in Pittsburgh, PA. Daniels is pleased with how well the project went this year and hopes to do it again next summer.