One of the first things I tried with the Makey Makey kit was the “Banana Bongo” activity that is outlined in the setup guide included in the package. It took a few minutes to get going, but as soon as everything was hooked up, it was a hoot to play with! Even my fiance wanted to get in on the fun (although our puppy was not amused!!)! You can view the musically stylings of my fiance in the (grainy) video below!
I then went on to explore with a bunch of different items I had laying around my house. It was fun to explore the various possibilities and the fact that bananas worked made me stretch myself to try other unusual objects before ruling them out. The fact that this kit made me start questioning and thinking in new ways from the moment I started playing with it really got me interested. I can see my students really getting into this and discovering so much without any input from me!
Here are some of my failed attempts:
After a few tries, and a visit to my home office, I found some materials that worked.
Of course, the first connection I made regarding the kit and elementary curriculum was the unit our 4th grade science teacher teaches on electricity & circuits. We are focusing on including inquiry-based instruction when it is appropriate and I can see the students discovering some of the concepts on their own in order to make this circuit work. At our school we also try to allow time for our students to work on coding. Using the MM kit with the site Scratch is such a neat way to get the kids engaged with coding in a whole new way. As I played with the kit more I realized the value of this maker kit goes beyond the obvious. As a 2nd grade teacher, I teach the students about sound. The Makey Makey site has different instruments that can be controlled using this kits. I can see my students creating a really cool digital band in the computer lab with these kits and applying the vocabulary and concepts they have learned already to these instruments. Next year, I can see this being a tool I use to encourage the students to discover some of the concepts we study on their own without my input! Of course, I also think that their collaboration skills and ability to persevere will be tested by this kit.
To create a project that I could easily use with my students, I went through the following steps:
- Gather small metal objects. Of course, you could also use bananas or other fruit, but in a school I don’t see that as a practical option; paperclips, however, are abundant and cheap!
- Connect the objects to the circuit board with the alligator clips.
3. Connect the alligator clips to the circuit board.
4. Plug in the USB cable from the circuit board to your computer.
5. Visit www.makeymakey.com/piano
6. Hold the alligator clip that is attached to the “Earth” part of your circuit board in one hand and start tapping your metal objects to make music!
I was inspired by last week’s work to create a bit of a remix to summarize the work I did while exploring the MakeyMakey kit. I, of course, included an example of the lesson I outlined above, but I also wanted to connect it to the “Failure to Success” video of last week by showing a few of my fails. I also wanted to include some of the ideas and thoughts that came to mind as I was exploring. Check out the video below!
<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/160556712″>Makey Makey</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user38095039″>Lori Opron</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
*The addition of the pictures and videos helps to illustrate ideas that may not have come across with just words. As people go through a post, having images and videos helps to clear up misconceptions and also makes it a lot more interesting to read!
Tech In Lower El 