Makey Makey

This was the first initial lesson using Makey Makey with Year 4.  It was a time to experiment while having fun and problem solving while working together with a partner,

Makey Makey

More Makey Makey

This was a whole day of learnings.  

The object of this lesson was to:  

• get the students familiar with music notes, names and values
• introduce the new Scratch 3.0
• add the new blocks to use makey makey

The outcome of this lesson required the students to:

•  create a code using scratch to a simple song or tune
•  connect a makeymakey to create an instrument to play the sound through

MAKEY MAKEY

Makey Makey

Students will show that they

• can identify the inputs and outputs of a system 
•  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.

SCRATCH- Math shapes

Throughout the year I have been introducing the class to code by using scratch.  I found that a lot of the students really struggled to use scratch if they were told to make something specific.

I wanted to use it in maths and relate this to geometry and shapes.

The task was set to make a square, triangle, pentagon and hexagon.  I gave them the instructions but they had to problem solve to figure which numbers to put in so they could get the right size and angle movement.

Using CODE to make Mothers Day cards

When I got to school today several students asked me if we could make something for Mothers Day.  I decided to try something with a twist.

Some of the class had done coding before and a handful had not.  I paired some of the students up so they could learn off each other and then worked with a small group who had no prior experience.

After I gave a small demonstration on the the projector screen the students were left to make their own  creation.  Will the purpose been - to produce a Mothers Day card using code.  (We were using scratch)

The class did really well and I was really impressed with the ideas they came up with. 

The only problem we found was sharing our codes- there was no email link so we had to cut and paste the link and send in email.  Here are some examples below.

Examples of Mothers Day Cards

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/108444137/

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/108445142/

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/108444367/