The middle classes had a go out creating some badges using electrical circuits. There were a few steps to this lesson so we broke them down throughout the day.
The main teaching points were:
1. understanding how a circuit works
2. Creating and designing a personalised badge for themselves
3. using a conductive thread to sew, to enable the circuit to make the light shine.
The students were very pleased with the way they turned out. There was a lot of excitement when they turned their switches on and saw that their light came on!
The front of the badges, each had a light. A pin was attached to the back.
understand that when we give a digital device an input, the device processes it and produces an output
can use an application to create original content.
Our school recently purchased a set of makey makeys. After teaching the classes how to use scratch I introduced the makey makeys.
I began by showing them an example of a circuit i had made out of carrots, celery, play dough and bananas. We listened to the each object make a musical note and when joined a closed circuit as a class to produce a sound.
After watching a video clip about makey makey http://makeymakey.com/ we then discussed what objects were insulators and conductors of electricity.
Their task was to find 5 objects from around the school that were conductors of electricity and set them up to produce a closed circuit and to play a tune.
A range of materials were used
Each of the students did this very well. They had to problem solve if the circuit wasn't working. Some common mistakes were
not having a wire earthed
not touching the earthed wire when they were trying to get sound
using a object that wasn't conductive
They worked through this very well and progressed on to making music by using on of the makey makey apps. Piano or bongo drums
Double earthed wires required collaboration
Lead from the pencil worked well
So much engagement from the class
They discovered they could use parts of their bodies- or other peoples!
All that hair came in handy!
Team work for a closed circuit
Honk Honk!
All ages enjoyed this
Playdough made great keys
SCRATCH
Some of the students who were a bit more competent were able to progress onto scratch. They were able to use code to make music playing notes on different instruments.
