In conversation with Michelle Swensson: connecting a community of coders designing solutions that matter
By Melodie D
At Scratch, we believe the ability to creatively challenge the limits of code is cultivated in environments where peer collaboration meets personal passion projects. Environments built upon diverse disciplines and communities help invite unique perspectives and create new pathways rethinking how coding can and does appear in our lives.
Creating points of connection between what is being taught in school and the real world and across different disciplines opens coding to possibilities beyond the world of STEM. For students, teachers often play an essential role in helping bridge this metaphorical gap between the four walls of the classroom and the “real world,” and between different school subjects. This integration of meaningful, real world contexts and the integration of different disciplines with code helps young learners see coding not merely as a separate subject field or only for certain communities, but a tool that they can use to make a tangible difference in the world.
For Michelle Swensson, an Instructional Technology Coach at Carson Street STEAM Academy in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), helping students, teachers, administrators, and community members make personal connections to creative coding has been integral to developing a compassionate community of coders developing and designing creative solutions across all disciplines and for diverse communities.
Connecting across curriculums
Coding has not always been seen as a tool that is universally accessible to teachers of all disciplines. For Michelle, inviting teachers who did not come from STEM or coding backgrounds to use Scratch was an opportunity to help the community rethink “coding” — seeing and learning how to use it as a learning tool rather than viewing it as another hurdle where they had to learn “how to do variables and conditionals and loops.”
We asked Michelle how she helps teachers in a variety of disciplines in her community feel empowered to use Scratch:
My approach to empowering teachers who are new to coding is to show them that Scratch coding can be used as another form of expression for students to communicate what they are learning in class.
Whether it be in Math or in Science, I want teachers to get comfortable with integrating coding into their instruction and not to view it as a separate thing.
I often say to teachers, “Hey, you’re teaching (any academic content), why don’t we give another option for your students to show what they learned? “ I then show how we can have the students create interactive games, posters, presentations, or a quiz using Scratch coding about the academic content that they are learning in class. This way it’s not about teaching coding as a separate unit but showing how it can be used as a tool for students to creatively communicate their academic knowledge.
Connecting pathways to creative coding careers
For Michelle, early exposure to coding is absolutely essential in empowering young learners, especially those from communities that have been traditionally excluded from creative coding careers and opportunities. She hopes that introducing coding early on in a child’s learning journey will help them feel confident in overcoming personal and external barriers that may hold them back from pursuing future coding opportunities.
Can you describe joyful learning moments you’ve been able to witness in the classroom, and how you’ve helped to create pathways to coding for children in communities that have traditionally been marginalized and underrepresented in STEM fields?
There are so many joyful moments with students coding with Scratch, I almost feel like a superstar coming into the classroom because of the way they greet me. I want to think that some of that is because it’s me but all joking aside, I know it’s because they are excited to work on their Scratch projects. Anytime I introduce Scratch coding for the first time, I see their faces light up and they yell out, “Oh, I made it move! I made it make a sound!” I wish I could capture all those moments when students see their imagination actualized through Scratch Coding.
Providing students with these types of learning experiences where they feel confident and utilize coding as a pathway to showcase their knowledge of their academic content areas is essential for students to see that computer science is everywhere. Early access and exposure helps foster the mindset that they can also be someone who can be successful in the CS/STEM field. They don’t have to become software engineers or computer scientists but I am hoping that they will see how computer science is another approach to solving problems in our world. I want students to know that,
“Hey, computer science isn’t just for computer scientists, but it’s integrated into every aspect of our lives.”
Connecting the community
Not only does Michelle help teachers and students in her school and district use coding as a tool to pursue and explore their passions, an important part of her work has involved engaging parents and the greater Los Angeles community with coding. Michelle’s work in facilitating Creative Coding Nights and other community events where parents, administrators, and community members can see and interact with student projects helps create buy-in about the importance of creative coding curriculum.
How do the projects students have created and exhibited at these events show community members how they have used code to creatively solve problems and develop critical learning skills?
One of the main goals in creating and sharing Scratch student projects with the community is to change the perception that it’s for certain students and it’s something that happens after school. To shift this perception, we have family coding events where they code as a family to see the ways coding can be used as a way to show their creativity, communicate with others, and a way for families to learn together. I wanted the parents to see the connection that it’s not just like a cat moving around and it’s just a game, but that they see the connection that coding can be used in any setting, in the classroom as well as a personal space for students to create innovative solutions to local and global issues.
In various school events, physical computing projects with Scratch coding and Makey Makey circuit boards were showcased to share how students can create solutions for their community. One of the projects was an Interactive Safety Field Trip T-shirt that was designed for the teachers at Carson Street STEAM Academy. The teachers shared what they wanted the safety features to include and the students created a prototype of the shirt. It included buttons that activated Scratch coding to make an alarm sound when in danger or they were lost. Another group created a Scratch and Makey Makey Therapy Robot that would play an inspirational quote, song, or tell a joke. They also had a pre- and post-assessment tool to collect the data to see if the therapy robot had a positive outcome from their peers.
Through these types of projects, we want to help all stakeholders see that Computer Science education empowers students to become problem solvers that positively impact their communities.
Developing compassionate solutions to real world problems
The interdisciplinary value of coding is exemplified in the numerous projects Michelle and the teachers and students at LAUSD have created. As she continues in her role as an Instructional Technology Coach, she hopes to build on the educational foundations in her classroom: connecting across subject areas and contexts, encouraging students to use coding as a tool to explore topics they’re passionate about, and enabling them to think about the community they are designing for and with.
Could you share examples of how students have cultivated compassion through creative coding and used it to solve social issues that they see in their communities?
My students who are in the upper elementary grades utilize a design thinking process with our students to create Scratch and Makey Makey projects about a need or an issue in their local and global communities. At the STEAM Gala, students showcased projects where they created an artifact to respond to a specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, personal passion, or a community issue.
All projects using the design thinking process starts with empathy, students are asked to think about the needs of their audience.
We had student projects where they had a neighbor that experienced power outages and so they wanted to research and see how they could help. From that research, they focused on the impacts of climate change and created an interactive art project with Scratch coding and Makey Makey to share ways people can reduce climate change by making simple changes in their everyday life. Another group focused on creating a bag with interactive buttons that would speak for younger students with selective mutism. These visual buttons, made for pre-readers, would activate the Scratch code to say simple phrases for the children.
I believe that when students are given the time to analyze and collaborate about the real world problems that affect them and the people they care about, it naturally cultivates compassion and empathy to make a positive difference around their local and global communities. If we want the next generation to become the positive changemakers in this global age,
Let’s give voice to our students through creative computing so that they are empowered to create meaningful solutions and communicate what matters to them.
Connect with Michelle on Twitter @MichelleSwenss1 where she shares updates and project ideas using Scratch!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
