You may have heard of Makey Makey but do you know how to use it in the classroom?
In the blog post I will explain some ways to incorporate Makey Makey in your class.
♦ STEP 1: Introduce the Makey Makey
I show the students a short clip produced by the makers of Makey Makey at MIT. You can view it here. The clip shows various ways to use the Makey Makey and has a short explanation from the designers at MIT, Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum. This is a great launching pad to grab the students’ interest.
♦ STEP 2: Explore with Makey Makey
Allow students to explore. The device is a small rectangle metal plate with strange looking holes on it. It is labelled like it might be a gaming device. Students need the opportunity to explore all the features of the Makey Makey in their classroom in their own time. I typically use a FREE quick set up guide to allow students to connect their device. You will need a LAPTOP (with USB port) a MAKEY MAKEY (with micro USB cable) and some ALIGATOR CLIPS.
♦ STEP 3: Test materials
Provide some conductive and non-conductive materials for your students to test out the Makey Makey. Use the Makey Makey apps like Piano or Bongos or pair it with pre-made Scratch games like Flappy Bird. Can they get the Makey Makey to work using Play-Doh or tin foil? Does it work using fruit or markers? This is where the students have a whole bunch of fun. Students can test all these materials to see if they conduct electricity or not. The best thing about Makey Makey is that they only need to be slightly conductive to work. You can even get the Makey Makey to work through the human skin!!! Whoa…… mind blown!
If you want to take the Makey Makey even further you could add it as part of a project. I love using it to make an Interactive Poster. Students work with Scratch to answer some questions about a topic and rather than the poster have the typed out answers, people can press a button and the poster will speak the information or answers to them. A great way to combine technology and information. For a step by step guide you can check out out Interactive Poster Resource here.
If you’re looking for some Unplugged Coding information, check out our BLOG POST here.