Yesterday was a busy day at Echo Lake Elementary! I spent time time with Mrs. Aloma’s class discovering the endless possibilities with the Makey Makey’s. A Makey Makey is an invention kit for the 21st century. You can turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It’s a simple invention kit for beginners and experts doing art, engineering, and everything in between. Mrs. Vick (ELES Librarian) and Mrs. Aloma have been participating in Makers Space during their library time! They invited me to help introduce the Makey Makey’s.
Two weeks ago during Makers Space time the students practiced using Scratch and animating with the Scratch Cards. Mrs. Vick and Mrs. Aloma hope that the students will eventually be able to design in Scratch and manipulate with the Makey Makey’s.
For today’s lesson we really gave no formal introduction. We broke the students into pairs and then gave them each a Makey Makey. We gave them about 5 minutes to see what they could do. We had cords everywhere. Some groups were trying to read the directions in the box, some were plugging things into multiple slots and some were aimlessly staring so baffled and confused. One student (who had actually taken a HCPS Summer Enrichment class) was the only one to successfully put the Makey Makey together. After giving them a few minutes to explore we took time to explain the actual Makey Makey to the students. We had them follow my directions and successfully assembled their Makey Makey.
After explaining the concept of the ground/earth cord to the students we let them experiment with the Makey Makey piano and bongos found on the Makey Makey website. Then Mrs. Vick brought out a bucket of items that could attach to the Makey Makey and possibly make electricity. The kids had a blast playing the piano using items like aluminum foil, pencil shavings and even play-dough. Some students even realized that they could be the electric conductors if they held onto to the cords coming from the Makey Makey. I can’t wait to go back and see what else these kids can come up with! Science was really rocking in the library yesterday! If you are interested in getting your students working with the Makey Makey’s sign up for a lesson and we can make it happen!
In addition to spending time playing with the Makey Makey’s I am also collaborating with Mr. Carr and some of his students at Carver Elementary. His students are working to create a device that could travel to space, land on a comet and gather information to help NASA. After working on their persuasive speeches they will design a model of their lander and we will print them using a 3D printer. Yesterday I spent some time practicing with the 3D printer. Check back soon for an update about this awesome project! Whew, what a day!
