List of 25:
This is the drawing of our original idea.
These are the clips on the Makey Makey. We also ended up adding one for the up key and one for the down key.
These are the pieces of tinfoil that we either wore or touched. We ended up adding two more.
We used this program with our creation.
This is the project all together. We added two more bracelets, one attached to the down key and the other attached to the up key.
We made a sort musical handshake. Isabella and Makaila started out touching the aluminum foil bracelets attached to the right and left arrow keys. I wore the bracelet attached to earth. After the first potion of our handshake was done, Makaila and Isabella touched the bracelets attached to the up and down arrow keys for the last two notes.
I learned how Makey Makey works. I also learned a little about how circuits work because Makey Makey creates a sort of circuit. When I first began working on this project, I didn't know that someone had to be connected to earth. We were not able to get a sound because the circuit could not be complete without someone or something being connected to earth. Figuring this out taught me about the things mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.
There are a few standards this project ties to. One of them is Empowered Learner. I was not given direct instructions for this project, so I had to determine what I wanted to do and figure out how to do it. I decided I wanted to create a musical handshake, and then I had to come up with a way to achieve that. I had to troubleshoot to overcome challenges I ran into. One example of this is in the previous paragraph when I had to figure out why it wasn't working and figure out how to fix it. another standard this project is tied to is Knowledge Constructor. On the website for the MITECS standards, under Knowledge Constructor, it says that students " Plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources..." When I ran into the problem first mentioned in the second paragraph, I located the information I needed by consulting the help section on the manual that was in the Makey Makey box. I used the internet to find the piano program that we used. A third standard is Innovative Designer. Some of the things stated on the MITECS website under innovative designer are: Students need to use the design process, and students need to show a capacity for working with open-ended projects. This project was very open ended because we could make anything we wanted to with Makey Makey. WE also follwed th design process. We came up with a design, built it and tested it. We revised it and tested it again until we got something that worked. Finally, this project is tied to the standard Creative Communicator. The MITECS website says that students need to "express themselves creatively" and "Publish or present content that customizes the message or medium for their intended audiences. I've expressed myself creatively through what I created with Makey Makey. I've published and presented the project on this page of my digital portfolio.
There are a few different challenges I had to overcome during this project. One of them has already been mentioned on this page. I couldn't get it to make any sound, so I looked at the manual and figured out that we had to have someone connected earth. I also had to change my design completely at one point. Our original idea was to have five notes and only two people in the video. When we had more that one note per person, all of them would play at the same time because the electricity travels through the person's hand or body and so all circuits are completed. We overcame this problem by changing the handshake we only had one note per person. Another challenge I had to overcome was working with a group. We had some disagreements about what handshake we would do and what it should look and sound like. We were eventually able to settle these arguments by talking it over and listening to what each person had to say.
If I could so something differently, I might like to have more people. I feel like there just isn't very much you can do with only two notes. In volleyball, before a game, some of the team stands with their hands up while the rest of the team runs by giving them high fives. If I had more people maybe I could do some musical version of that.
The skills learned during this project might be useful if I wanted to be an engineer. I was able to use the design process and build a physical object. I think this would be a big part of engineering. Also, I learned about circuits, which would probably be useful as a engineer.