Throughout October—Suicide Prevention Month—the 8th-grade STEAM students, led by Robotics and STEAM teacher Chuck Marshall, combined coding with creativity to create impactful songs. Drawing inspiration from the Pine Forge Academy Choir, they explored themes of resilience with guidance from our SEE Learning teachers, and researched the growing issues of teenage anxiety and depression.

Using Georgia Tech’s Earsketch platform, students coded musical arrangements designed to support public service campaigns by the Ad Council, which focus on teenage mental health. They viewed sample PSA videos [sample 1] [sample 2] to see how music lyrics can help struggling teens express themselves.

In this unit, students learned about popular song structure, arrangement, 4-instrument, 16-beat beat arrangements, and the musical tools that can evoke emotion. They also engaged in an ethics discussion on the future of AI in music generation. Now, they’re taking the next step by writing their own PSAs to raise awareness about teen anxiety and depression, focusing on education and empathy. Their original music will be featured as the background for these PSAs.

The following students were paired to create the music:

Beatrice Downs and Nola Parsons; Jake Rainwater and Pierson Sleeper; Sahil Patel and Charlie Culver; Gavin Cool and Andre Rone; Todd Haslem and Law Dawson; Alex Flax and Brannon Harrison; Tehya Johnson and Nasir Cain. 

You can check out their full-length songs here.