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If your kids are like mine, they love to take things apart around the house, and then hopefully put them back together so that they work again! While I want to encourage this type of learning, I also would like to keep my remote controls, computer mouse, and other various appliances in good working condition. Instead, they get to play with a Makey Makey Labz Kit and various household goods to experiment and learn with while they use them.
About Makey Makey
Makey Makey started out as a project that was initiated by two students at MIT Media Lab under the advisorship of Mitch Resnick and is an academic and artistic project. Now it’s both a business and a project with thousands of community collaborators, with more joining the ranks of inventors everyday.
How does Makey Makey work?
Makey Makeys work just like a USB keyboard or mouse, sending keyboard (WASD, spacebar, etc) and mouse (left click, right click, etc) signals to your computer.
Makey Makey Classic works through opening and closing circuits, just like any other button. Instead of the circuit being closed underneath your keyboard, the circuit is closed through the conductive objects you connect with alligator clips like your hand or your lunch or some tinfoil. When the circuit is closed, the Makey Makey sends a command to your computer, just like when a button is pressed on a keyboard.
My Thoughts
I love when my kids use their hands and minds for creative play. By that I mean, they aren’t mindlessly staring at a computer or video game on the screen! Once we took the Makey Makey kit out of the box, we had our first “program” set up within minutes. They hooked up the Makey Makey board via USB to my laptop, grounded it by holding onto one end of a wire via alligator clip, and ran another wire from the board to a banana! Suddenly, they could make the computer act like we had hit the space bar, simply by tapping the banana. They were thrilled! And so the hunt began for other combinations to try, such as tin foil, clay, rubber bands and more.
Plus, the Makey Makey board can give other commands too like a left or right mouse click or up/down/left/right directions to the computer. It can also use the board to program common household items into circuits such as turning a piece of cardboard into a guitar, lighting up LED bulbs, etc. The kids learn about computers, wiring, programming, coding, and conductivity by trial and error, all within a safe learning environment.
As the kids get more familiar and want more of a challenge, they can visit the Makey Makey website for tutorials or ideas how to build bigger and better projects. They can also download apps to play with like bongo drums, a piano, or video games. Of course, I supervise their browsing just to be safe, but they’ve come up with some neat ideas they are eager to try out soon.
I think this would be a great toy for any child that likes to learn with hands-on playing and experimentation. While reading isn’t necessarily required to operate the Makey Makey board, it helps as they are following instructions. It would make a great educational gift or even purchase several to gift to a classroom!
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We’ve added Makey Makey Labz Kit to our MEGA Christmas Gift Guide! Check it out here!