Makey Makey Lets You Make Things

Pencil piano

This weekend I drove up to State College, home of the Nittany Lions to attend a "Train the Trainer" event sponsored by PAECT. At this event, we learned about Makey Makey from their VP of education.

Group circuit. How many people
can you connect?

The training was a full day of activities for us to see how Makey Makey can be used in the classrooms. We will then turn around and provide trainings to different educators from around the state.

The first activity of the day was to test the conductivity of different materials. It seems that Play-Doh is conductive and so is pencil led. I don't think I ever realized how many everyday products are conductive.

One idea we were shown was when a teacher selects a new game each week and has the students design a controller that will create the "natural" movements for the game while functioning as a switch to complete the circuit.

When in State College, you need a
picture with the Nittany Lion.

Some pieces of advice we got:

• Avoid dollar store foil because it rips easily and is hard to manipulate.
• Aluminum Foil Tape is conductive and lasts longer than copper tape.
• Find "busy work" when the students are given time to create. This will force you as the teacher/trainer not to help solve the problem.