Makerspace exploration: Makey Makey

 

image from Padagua,  under CC BY-SA 4.0)

This week we are to explore a site that could be helpful in school makerspace. My digital curation project was on Makerspaces in schools so I've been exploring this topic for a few weeks (check it out at this Pearltree). One tool I kept seeing in makerspace conversations that I knew nothing about was Makey Makey. 

First, I found this website from Indiana K12 Maker Space. It lists about 2 dozen instruction and example sites for Makey Makey. Through that site, I found a blogger named Julie Smith who runs the The Techie Teacher. Her video on "Academic Ways to Use the MaKey MaKey in Elementary Classrooms" is a great introduction. What I love about Makey Makey is that is is a relatively low cost way to develop a maker mindset without maintaining too many supplies or even a dedicated workspace. While there are many ways to use Makey Makey with older kids, this post is an introduction and approaches using the Makey Makey with elementary students. 

Makey Makey is an invention kit that comes with a small circuit board, alligator clips, wires, and a USB. It allows objects that conduct (bananas, pencil lead, cups of water, almost anything) to become a touchpad for the computer. With MaKey Makey users learn to invent and create new ways of using a computer. It works with coding programs like Scratch. Here in a brief video with a few Makey Makey projects: 

Here's a cool Makey Makey challenge that involved creating an exit ticket. 

Julie Smith shares a five day lesson plan to introduce students to a Makey Makey.  Most students will need to collaborate with others because few classrooms will have a Makey Makey for each student.  If your students already know how to code on Scratch, fewer days will be needed. Her process is basically 1)Hook Day!  Introduce the Makey Makey with a demonstration. 2) Teach the kids to hook up the Makey Makey 3) Introduction to Coding using Hour of Code. 4) Introduction to Scratch using the free Scratch cards 5) Project Day. Have the kids use Scratch to create a game or animation that uses the four arrow keys only for control. Then attach the Makey Makey to control the program. Later steps would be to teach the kids to use Makey Makey to control other functions (letters, click, space bar). 

Image from Eva-Marie Kuhling/Peter Wozniak via CC BY 3.0

So learning Makey Makey is a process. But once learned, you have an introduction to coding, an introduction to Scratch and a knowledge of Makey Makey. Suddenly, the possibilities for creating, developing maker-mindsets, issuing challenges that require Design Thinking,  making mistakes, solving them, and learning about circuits is increased exponentially. And all this can done without a large number of supplies or even a dedicated makerspace. Laura Fleming's defines a makerspace in Dr. Moorefield-Lang's lecture as "a unique learning environment that encourages tinkering, play and open ended exploration for all" (TechFifteen, 2021). So I think the Makey Makey and Julie Smith's introduction plan give librarians an instant makerspace. Librarians can teach these 3 tools (coding, scratch, Makey Makey) that open a world of possibilities all within a makerspace mindset. They can encourage the concept of creating and learning and not just regurgitating. Julie has used these concepts with kids as young as first grade. 

Image by Chestercroff under CC BY-SA 4.0

Makey Makey pairs nicely with AASL learner framework because it requires students to think, create, share and grow. It encourages sustained inquiry and as Ana Canino-Fluit explains about makerspaces in the library,"Making at the library should be about helping your students identify the problems they want to solve and the things they want to create and teaching them to the use the tools they will need in order to do it" (2014). Makey Makey gives tools to imagine and create. 

References:

TechFifteen. (2021, May 17). Makerspaces Summer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWQ6B4UnZaA

Canino - Fluit, A. A. (2014). School Library Makerspaces. Teacher Librarian, 41(5), 21-27.