Beyond the Banana Piano: Makey Makey for Beginners and Beyond

February 19, 2020

Join the Makey Makey team to learn some engaging ways to use Makey Makey in your classroom. From switches, to building circuits, to interactive art, this lively webinar is a must for teachers, students, and makers of all ages that are new to Makey Makey and aren't sure how to get beyond the banana piano. The best way to get started as a maker is to tinker and play to learn (and maybe re-learn how to play). Watch the webinar to learn more!

Watch the Webinar

Invention Literacy

Think about Invention Literacy and how it could frame your student learning.

Great Guides for Starting with Makey Makey

After completing your first time Makey Makey set up, have your students test items with the "What is Conductive?" experiment.

Sketch it! Play it! is a great guide for drawing your own circuits before you start coding projects.
This is an older guide, but still a goodie! Have students draw and code the different types of triangles.
Want more pianos? Make your own super easy floor piano or more complex floor piano.

Primary/Elementary School Project Ideas

These are some great starter activities for elementary schools!

Create Interactive Book Art: Guide by Frazer Merrick
Research historical figures and create Biography Bottles: Project by Kimberley Boyce and Bradley Quentin
Create an Interactive Book so students can interact with stories in a new way: Project by Nathan Sekinger
Add sound effects to an existing book. Check out Tom's Brown Bear, Brown Bear book hack below:

Hack Literacy with this Doll-E 1.0 Project by building your own interactive robot or doll and coding its database.
Create paper circuits, switches and more with these stations in the "Tinkering with Circuits" guide.

Secondary School Project Ideas

Generate fractions in the real world and on your computer screen with this Fraction Generator guide. Go further by coding volume.
Challenge students to make games that will get their peers to be physically active with this STEM in the Gym challenge.
Use Scratch and Makey Makey to explain the change of mood and tone in art or literature like this Interactive Art Project created by a student of Josh Ajima.
Have middle schoolers create a Collaborative Sensory Maze for younger students.

Accessibility and Occupational Therapy

Design inventions that will help others. See how all these amazing educators use Makey Makey to aid in accessibility.

Check out this webinar with Trisha Roffey on Electrifying Assistive Technology.
Watch the Build a Better Book Webinar to learn how maker technologies can be used to make books accessible for all students.
Design a therapy idea for a student working on range of motion, motor control, or visual motor coordination like this Hula Hoop Switch by Katie Butzu and Mark Lyons.

We are amazed at the Occupational Therapist use of Makey Makey! Read this blog post about Jennifer Schank and Michele Morgan to hear how they use it in their practice. Plus, visit Jennifer's mOTivator labs webpage for even more ideas about using Makey Makey to assist in Occupational Therapy.

Share Your Ideas

We hope all these ideas help you get #beyondthebanana, but more importantly, we hope you will share your amazing and awesome ideas with our community!