Designing St. Luke’s Francophone Jukebox

For the past four years, Cynthia Briggs’ Middle School French classes partnered with Kimberly Gerardi in the St. Luke’s designLab to create a hands-on project that uses the engineering design process. This year, the seventh- and eighth-graders envisioned and constructed an over-the-top, interactive jukebox that plays over 60 French songs. 

The Prototype
The project began last year when students created the prototype for the jukebox. They used foam board, laser-cut birch wood, Mylar, and other fabrication materials and installed an open-source touch board for prototyping circuitry to select songs. Students quickly learned that the jukebox was not durable enough to keep up with the demand of users, and just two hours after it launched, it needed to be reinforced to maintain integrity. They also determined that the internal components limited the number of songs the jukebox could hold, and the touchscreen, while functional, didn’t feel like they were playing music on a jukebox. 

Improving the Design
In year two, students took what they learned from the prototype and set off to improve its design and functionality. “The project was all about students being comfortable with starting over; utilizing what they learned to improve their work,” shared Kimberly Geradi, Middle School designLab Director. “We started the second iteration by asking students questions such as, What can we take from the first draft and apply it to the next and final? What did we like? What didn’t work? What did you learn that you wanted to keep, and what did you learn that you need more information on?”

From there, students researched different styles of jukeboxes, how they looked, how music was stored, and how users interacted with them. Students decided to design the jukebox to look like the classic musical icon from the 1950s. They wanted neon lights, working buttons to press for song selection, and information about the song, artist, and country of origin to display on the screen. They also wanted to ensure the jukebox was durable and could sustain high user traffic. 

Building the Jukebox
Students got to choose what part of the design they wanted to be involved in: aesthetics, buttons, or screen use. In four classes, they worked with the designLab team to bring their vision to life. 

CJ Agro, St. Luke’s designLab Technician, was instrumental in helping students get the jukebox to work. He found a 1936 Philco radio at a garage sale, gutted it for the students to use as the frame of the jukebox, and suggested using a Rasberry Pi system to store and play unlimited songs.

The students were hands-on with constructing the jukebox, sanding, wiring buttons, using the laser cutter, attaching lighting, building the circuitry, and even carrying over the miniature albums from the prototype to include in this improved version. Other students worked on the interface, deciding what the screen should look like, and selecting the information to display. A third group of students practiced their coding skills to fill the Raspberry Pi with more than 60 songs — one from each student in Mademoiselle Briggs’ classes.

Selecting the Songs

Each student researched Francophone artists and selected one song to feature in the jukebox. They designed album covers with photos of the artist, the country of origin, lyrics in French and English (that they translated), and a fun fact. Users of the jukebox would peruse the album covers and then select the song by pushing the letter and number buttons on the jukebox that correspond to the album. When the music plays, the artist’s country of origin flag will pop up on the screen, along with the song's title. 

By having students select the songs, they were exposed to various artists from different Francophone countries worldwide. It helped teach students that French culture isn’t just in France. “Music is a unifying force to share,” said Briggs.

Cross-Curricular Collaboration
When students participate in cross-curricular projects, it connects their learnings from different subject areas, such as math, science, history, and language. It also exposes them to subject matter experts with varying skill sets who can guide them in completing a project. Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, St. Luke’s designLab collaborated on more than 40 classroom projects. “I hope Mlle. Briggs’ projects inspire other teachers,” said Gerardi. “I want them to see how we can collaborate and, through the interactive process, make this process a wonderful experience for our students.”

What’s Ahead
Next year, Briggs' classes will move on to a new design-based project, but the jukebox will live on. It can be found throughout the year in Briggs’ classroom (Room 234) for students and faculty to stop by and play a song. With its unlimited capacity, new music can be added each year. And, during World Language Week, the Francophone Jukebox will be out in the commons for everyone to enjoy. “It brought all the ambiance to World Langauge Week by providing a consistent stream of international hits,” said Jon Shee, World Language Chair. “It was an impressive collaboration orchestrated by Cynthia Briggs and executed by Kimberly Gerardi and CJ Agro.”