Skip to main content

Professional Development from MakeyMakey

With the coronavirus, I wanted something I could learn about while having some fun and down time, without staring at my Netflix account too much.

I recently found an opportunity to take an online PD from MakeyMakey, presented by Tom Heck.

This course, called 'Beyond the Banana" explores electric circuitry that can be created and adapted to the MakeyMakey, a circut board that connects to a computer via USB. The MakeyMakey acts as a keyboard for the computer to add inputs from the real world.

As the MakeyMakey works as a keyboard, you can program with websites like Scratch, Tynker, or just play a piano.

I created an Indiana Jones drawing, that played the song as well. The Makey Makey was plugged into all of its' front ports, and a few letters via wire plugs on the back. It interacted with this website piano.



My final project was to create a Instructable that goes through the design of an invention. My invention was more of an adaptation of an idea, to create a game I could play with my kids.

I created a Skeeball table, and wrote my first Instructable!

Here is the link to my instructable
I learned a lot, and had some fun. Tom did a great job, learning how to teach an online course during the pandemic. I learned a lot, and some tricks that I can teach my teachers!

Thanks a bunch Tom!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Mac won't load the Users & Groups preference pane: Fix

I had recently had a Mac on Lion unable to load the Users & Groups Preference Pane.   Like this: My IT support had suggested reimaging the computer.  Reinstalling the Operating System, reloading the applications, and transferring back the User information from Time Machine Backup. Well, after doing all of that, the problem reappeared immediately.  I scoured through Apple Support Communities and found this fix.  For some reason, some transparent users are showing up in your system.  They need to be deleted.  But since you cannot load Users & Groups... it becomes a problem. Here is the solution / procedure. Quit System Preferences.   Launch Terminal.  (Applications/Utilities/Terminal)   Copy & Paste these commands. sudo dscl . delete /Users/Guest press enter Terminal may ask for your Administrator Password, enter that. sudo dscl . delete /Users/Guest1 press enter ...

Spike Prime Printable Blocks

As I prepare for coaching Middle Schoolers here in Waupaca for FIRST Lego League, I am trying to teach kids to code the SPIKE Prime Lego robots. This has its challenges. Some kids take to coding well, and some need more visuals to guide them. Teams may also want to whiteboard out their coding concepts.  I created this set of printable Word Blocks as a resource for printing, laminating, and maybe adding some magnets to the back. This allows me to put up code in a demonstration, or my teams to talk about how to achieve things after they have done some pseudo-coding of their projects. Having manipulative items are always nice for hands-on coding practice.  Whiteboard Word blocks for Proportional Line follow. Here is my collection of laminated word blocks Below are the files I created for creating these blocks. Feel free to use, but maybe send me a note & follow on twitter. @artschultz13 Direct link to folder shown below.

Trading Cards for Historical Figures

Trading Cards for Historical Figures 'King Kelly' via CC2.0 I was asked by a teacher in my building to help make a template for students to make 'historical figures trading cards'.  Not old baseball cards. Basically a sports card, that students could edit to show details about a person that they could research. The template is linked below the video clip. Here is my short explanation of how to modify... Here is my template for Making a Trading Card in Google Drawings . Hope this helps you!