Makey Makey Science Night

I setup 3 different Makey stations to explore.

At my school we were to showcase different activities for Math/Science night.  It was a perfect opportunity to try out the Makey Makeys I bought. I first seen them through Discovery Education, (I cannot remember which one). I have seen Steve Dembo and Dennis Grice demonstrate them among others.  I was enthralled by the devices but I couldn't justify purchasing them until I had a project in mind to use them.  I finally thought of a project which I will go into detail at a later blog, so since I have them, I might as well learn how to use them along with teaching the class.

Searching on the Makey site and its affiliate Scratch, I searched for some entertaining ways to learn how and teach how they work and quickly present it for the upcoming science night.

I teamed up with our Music Teacher, Mr. Blackwood and we created three stations; Frogger, Guitar Hero, and Dance Dance Revolution.

Frogger was directly from the Makey website using play dough to run a basic game found online.

Guitar Hero was a bit more challenging however, the directions and videos to make it are on the Makey website.  Plus we followed a Youtube video from Capturing Creativity.  The online game was easy enough to find online as well.

The final one; Dance Dance Revolution I just quickly came up with when brainstorming with Mr. Blackwood.  I am sure many others have come up with the same idea and posted it on the Makey or Scratch before me.

I used conductive tape for the guitar and Dance.  To create the dance floor, tape was placed on a poster board similar to the layout of the arrow keys on a computer keyboard.  The Ground was taped very close to each of the four arrows to easily complete the circuit.

Most sites recommend using your body as the ground by holding on to it with your hand or a bracelet around your wrist.  To me that didn't seem to be a useful idea since the gamers will be moving around a lot and possibly pull the cords loose.  Instead I wanted the ground to be on the floor with the rest of the game.  To complete the circuit, I purchased protective painter booties and laced the bottom of them with the conductive tape.  Therefore, when they step on the game, they easily complete the circuit.

The night was a huge success, we had students and parents lined out the door to play.

Cooper likes Scifi