Makey Makey!

Makey Makey!

Just a quick post today, and an explanation of the really awesomely amazingly cool kit I’m fundraising for.  Many of you have already gotten a text or an email with a link to my Donors Choose project, but for those who haven’t, it’s Here.

So, what’s a Makey Makey and why do I want one?  Or, rather, 6?

Bananas.

Bananas?  Why did I start talking about bananas?  Well, my introduction to the Makey Makey was in a podcast where the inventors talked about how they could use a Makey Makey to turn bananas into a piano.  Crazy!  Now, of course, there’s more to it than that, but not much more. If you want to know how it works, visit the Makey Makey website.  They do a better j0b of explaining it than I ever would!

Or, watch this video:

Bananas are art?

Well, no.  Unless you’re painting a picture of them, or using them to paint a picture with.  But bananas- or anything that conducts electricity- can be used to build a circuit.  Once kids begin playing with circuits, they will get to be comfortable with building things that run using electricity and circuits.  And once they get to that point they can start making things that DO make art, or making art that moves, or who knows?  The point is that we have to start somewhere, and the Makey Makey kit is a great place for us to begin.

6 tables.

6 Tables in my art room, 6 Makey Makey kits.  That’s what I’m asking for.  If I had one kit for each table, kids could work together during class to make a project.  As a small group of 3-4 kids, they could all get hands on time with their project, and they would all learn how it works.  After they learn how it works, we could use those kits in our Fab Lab and kids would be challenged to build and design moving, blinking, singing, things.  And they could do it, because they’d all have had a chance to experiment.

It’s up to you.

So, if you’re at all interested, if I’ve gotten you curious, do check out the website and consider contributing towards our class goal.  If we reach it, we’ll all go BANANAS!

9 thoughts on “Makey Makey!

  1. My opinion in this article is that i think mickey mack is good for us an it might fun. I hope we can try use mickey mack in our art class.

  2. I think we should do the Makey Makey thing in our class because it looks and sounds fun. Well not looks but it does sound really cool and fun to do!

    • Thanks, Sebbe! Although I think that many of my students don’t need much encouragement- they often know more about it than I do 🙂 I do like that I can expose you to different kinds of technology that you might not have known about, though!!

  3. Art class is more different now because we don’t only do art we do technology and what it can do.

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