Makey Makey Learning For All Ages & Careers
What would you think if your professor asked the class to bring in aluminum foil, cardboard, sliced celery, bananas, and Play-Doh? With a special note of coming to class hungry? A huge noticeable question mark above your head. With instructions to watch a basic circuits video, you could think of possibly making something creative electrical work. Once the class was settled, we were surprised with Makey Makey Kits. We were given the task of using the materials we brought to class and the kits to complete a functioning controller for the game Frogger. With a surprising curveball, we couldn't touch the circuit board to move the frog. Insert the image of all students with open mouths here in your imagination.
The kit was composed of the circuit board, a USB cable cord to plug the board into the computer, alligator clips, and lead wires. First, our team tried to connect the lead wires into the headers and used alligator clips to the arrows. This was not the correct way, due to the functions would only work when a person touched the tips of the alligator clips. We thought that Play-Doh would be able to provide a better connection, but it still was not quite right. We discovered at this point we would need to move without touching the circuit board. This brought us to a bit of a wall.
Thinking back at the video we had to watch earlier, only a closed circuit would be able to function and their was a grounding component. Looking at the board, there is a section on the bottom that is called Earth. Using deductive reasoning, earth could represent ground. It was the grounding component in the circuit board! We then tried to ground each control into a banana, which failed. We thought about the headers on the circuit board and the control holes could be redundant portion of the circuit. We discarded using the lead wires and the header, focusing on the alligator clips with the control holes.
At this point, every group was low-key working together. We combined different ideas in our own way to see if it even worked. While thinking out loud, we discussed what a closed circuit is and the components. This led to the idea of the grounding agent being the human component. Through hilarious fails and close attempts, we figured out how to close the circuit without touching the circuit board. The control arrows were connected with alligator clips to balls of Play-Doh. The ground was ourselves by clipping an alligator clip to the Earth and holding the other end. You completed the circuit by touching the Play-Doh with your other hand, and allowing to move Frogger across the road.
The experience of this activity was very interesting. This was challenging, frustrating, and fun all rolled into one activity. The take from this activity wasn't just to complete the goal of making the controller, but to have better experience of what could be expected with work project. You will be placed within a group of different people to work towards a common goal with little to no instructions within a time constraint. This kit is great for kids and adults alike to be a creative outlet, but also showed how overthinking can block your own growth. This was wonderfully educational for myself. I often overthink and create a bigger task by overcomplicating them. The Makey Makey kit is great for creative minds of all ages, to engaging young students in technology to creative adults.
Feeling like a kid, our professor bought pizza for the class! He used a Poll Everywhere to ask about our favorite pizza toppings. The site is great to use in many different applications, from teaching, presentations, businesses, and much more. We could see the poll change in real time and send our vote in through text messaging or using the quick link code. The winning pizza toppings for the class was Hawaiian, pepper and onion, and buffalo chicken. It was a nice treat with the activity.
The assignment due for the class was a commercial for our major. It had to be a two minute commercial of why people should choose your major. I used the site called Animoto. I have very little skills in the video making department, and Animoto was easy to use. I decided to go with the slideshow format with pictures and texts to convey my points. The hard part was condensing the information into the allotted space and timing of the slide transitioning. Since I was using the free plan, the movie had the advertisement of Animoto and didn't have all the different options an upgraded plan. It was different and fun to do.
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| Makey Makey Kits Via Google |
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| Front of Circuit Board Via Google |
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| Back of Circuit Board via Google |
Thinking back at the video we had to watch earlier, only a closed circuit would be able to function and their was a grounding component. Looking at the board, there is a section on the bottom that is called Earth. Using deductive reasoning, earth could represent ground. It was the grounding component in the circuit board! We then tried to ground each control into a banana, which failed. We thought about the headers on the circuit board and the control holes could be redundant portion of the circuit. We discarded using the lead wires and the header, focusing on the alligator clips with the control holes.
At this point, every group was low-key working together. We combined different ideas in our own way to see if it even worked. While thinking out loud, we discussed what a closed circuit is and the components. This led to the idea of the grounding agent being the human component. Through hilarious fails and close attempts, we figured out how to close the circuit without touching the circuit board. The control arrows were connected with alligator clips to balls of Play-Doh. The ground was ourselves by clipping an alligator clip to the Earth and holding the other end. You completed the circuit by touching the Play-Doh with your other hand, and allowing to move Frogger across the road.
The Complete Controllers
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| The Working Product |
The experience of this activity was very interesting. This was challenging, frustrating, and fun all rolled into one activity. The take from this activity wasn't just to complete the goal of making the controller, but to have better experience of what could be expected with work project. You will be placed within a group of different people to work towards a common goal with little to no instructions within a time constraint. This kit is great for kids and adults alike to be a creative outlet, but also showed how overthinking can block your own growth. This was wonderfully educational for myself. I often overthink and create a bigger task by overcomplicating them. The Makey Makey kit is great for creative minds of all ages, to engaging young students in technology to creative adults.
Feeling like a kid, our professor bought pizza for the class! He used a Poll Everywhere to ask about our favorite pizza toppings. The site is great to use in many different applications, from teaching, presentations, businesses, and much more. We could see the poll change in real time and send our vote in through text messaging or using the quick link code. The winning pizza toppings for the class was Hawaiian, pepper and onion, and buffalo chicken. It was a nice treat with the activity.
The assignment due for the class was a commercial for our major. It had to be a two minute commercial of why people should choose your major. I used the site called Animoto. I have very little skills in the video making department, and Animoto was easy to use. I decided to go with the slideshow format with pictures and texts to convey my points. The hard part was condensing the information into the allotted space and timing of the slide transitioning. Since I was using the free plan, the movie had the advertisement of Animoto and didn't have all the different options an upgraded plan. It was different and fun to do.
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