Makey Makey, is a computer board that allows you to connect everyday objects to a computer as input devices. The Makey Makey board has slots and clips that allow you to attach objects to the board using alligator clips. The students are then able to create a signal the computer recognizes by closing the circuit from the attached object to the earth part of the board, creating an electric signal. These signals simulate a variety of controls such as mouse movement, arrow keys, mouse clicks and other keys such as ‘w’, ‘a’, ‘s’ and ‘d’. The controls can be used in combination with any computer program that uses key or mouse inputs, or with several special websites provided by Makey Makey. Students are given access to a variety of conductive items to connect to the Makey Makey boards such as: bananas, quarters, celery, paper clips, washers and much more.
First Session – April 11th, 2018
We had five students attend this session. After being introduced to the Makey Makey boards, the students used them to attach bananas as bongos, which made sounds on the laptop when touched; celery as keys for a piano, which played six different notes on the laptop; and attached quarters to cardboard to make a guitar, which they could use to play music in an online game.
Second Session – April 18th, 2018
We had four students for this session. Two of the students were new, and two were repeats. The new students were introduced to the Makey Makey boards, and then worked on creating their choice of bongos, a piano, or a guitar. The repeat students experimented with mixing up the base projects by using different objects, and got more in-depth with the Makey Makey boards.
Third Session – April 25th, 2018
This session again had four students. The students were first introduced to the Makey Makey boards, and then were able to use their imagination to create a variety of different objects using the laptops and boards. Two of the students also tried out the ‘fist bump’ controller which used the Makey Makey board and two people who could start and stop a movie by fist-bumping.
Fourth Session – May 2nd, 2018
At our final Makey Makey session we had three students who were all repeats from previous classes. The students again were given the chance to experiment with a variety of objects, which they could connect to the board and use to control various website or programs on the computer.
Project Conclusion
All of the students had fun with this program, and were introduced to both the basics of electronic circuits as well as basic electronic controllers which they used to send electrical inputs to computers. Students also learned the basics of electrical design concepts by learning how to set up their boards.