Makey Makey provides an ingenious twist to the concept of circuitry by transforming everyday objects into interactive touchpads. From bananas and aluminum foil to plants and even human touch, this invention kit encourages students to think beyond conventional boundaries and engage with science in an entirely new way.

But Makey Makey's impact on the science classroom goes far beyond just fun and games. By immersing students in the process of invention, it fosters creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. It encourages collaboration, as students work together to brainstorm ideas, troubleshoot challenges, and celebrate their achievements. Moreover, Makey Makey provides a tangible link between science and the real world, enabling students to grasp complex concepts by experiencing them firsthand.

Whether you are an educator looking at ways to implement this technology into your classroom or a curious student eager to explore our little invention kit, we've got some great science projects for you to delve into!

Generate Morse Code Translators!

By creating a conductive pathway between objects and your computer, you and your students can design your own unique experiments, combining scientific principles with the joy of discovery.

In this first project, we looked at multiple ways to create a Morse code machine with simple everyday objects. Since this requires only one key press, it's a great intro into inventing with Makey Makey.

Simply invent multiple one button devices that work like a button press, plug to a Morse Code Project like this Scratch Project or this Github "Learn Morse Code" experiment and try out your inventions! Which of your inventions work best as a Morse telegraph machine? And why?

Distance Rate and Time

Another great science experiment with Makey Makey is to measure distance, rate, and time!

How does acceleration change from a downward drop, to a flat surface, to an uphill ramp? With Makey Makey timing gates, you can measure the change in rate over your desired distance and catch the correct time as your toy car drives over these simple DIY switches.

 Distance Rate and Time Guide

Create timing gates for Hot-Wheel's tracks and measure time with a self designed Scratch project, or use our plug and play Timer app. 

If you want use our Timer App, it is pretty straightforward. For one timer, it uses two key presses: one that triggers the timer to start and another to trigger the timer to stop. You can adjust how the time is displayed in the options menu. You can also add more timers by clicking the lock and adjusting how many timers you want to activate.

Go to Timer App!

For a basic timer, choose a single timer and the “Stopwatch” mode. We recommend using “MM:SS:CS” for your time format if you are using multiple timers. If you are using the single timer the keys for start and stop are LEFT (start) and UP (stop). To reset the timer use the SPACE key.

Interactive Posters and Dioramas

Imagine a classroom where static posters and dioramas come to life, captivating students with interactive elements and sparking their curiosity about the wonders of science!

By harnessing the power of Makey Makey, you can revolutionize the way science is presented, engaging your students in hands-on exploration and making curricular concepts tangible!

By incorporating conductive materials, such as copper tape, aluminum foil, or conductive paint, students can transform their static displays into interactive marvels.

Picture a scientific diorama of a living plant, where touching different elements on the diorama triggers audio recordings about each part of the plant providing an immersive experience! Creating hands-on projects in this way will help students synthesize concepts, but it will also enable students to turn around and become the teacher in the classroom with their own interactive displays!

Using our New Poster App!

Students can create their own images and soundbites for these unique interactive posters and dioramas with our new poster app! Go to https://makeymakey.com/poster to try out the app.

Full Tutorial in adding images and soundbites

Students can take photos with the app, or search for creative common images to add to their poster. 

To add sounds and images, make sure to accept permissions to use the camera and microphone on each device.

To add a sound or visual to a key press, select a key, click on the corresponding button.

On the right side is a visual creator and an audio creator. With a keypress selected (the selected keyboard key turns yellow when selected), click on the upload arrow in the visual creator to add a web, jpg, png, or gif file. Or click on the audio creator to upload a wav or mp3 file.

Make sure to allow the app to use the camera and microphone. 

Once a photo is uploaded to a key press, you will see it in the visual creator on the right hand side of the screen. To record audio, make the microphone is enabled your microphone and hold the button to record sound, just like in our Sampler app. 

With sound and image uploaded, press down on the up arrow key on Makey Makey to see the picture in the display area and hear the sound. Students can  add up to 18 images and sounds. If you want students to download, onceWhen all images and sounds are mapped, have them can click the download arrow in the center of the screen to export the entire poster and re-upload as needed. 

Coding Posters in Scratch

We've got a full guide for how to code your own life cycle posters in Scratch available for free here! 

In this guide, students will learn how to code sequence and secret code projects and how to connect them to drawings or other physical elements in the real world that trigger animations in the digital world!

Check out our Guide to Creating Lifecycle Projects

 Which of these three projects are you excited to try in your classroom?