Meet the 2019-2020 Global Makey Makey Ambassadors!

November 07, 2019

We are so excited to introduce our newest class of Global Makey Makey Ambassadors! We love seeing passionate maker educators spreading around the globe from Fiji to Iraq to Tennessee!

Check out this Ambassador Map!

Without further ado... Meet our new ambassadors and check out their Instructables guides!

2019-2020 Ambassadors

Nadia Al-Aboody (Amara, Maysan, Iraq)

Nadia was recently in the states and she is bringing Makey Makey back to Iraq to introduce making to teachers there. She's an avid Scratcher that is going to begin leading our Makey Makey Invention Literacy Workshop in Iraq.

Follow on Twitter: @nadiaali3000

Maria Giovanna Battaglia (Vittoria, Ragusa, Sicily, Italy)

Maria learned about Makey Makey in a training course on eTwinning and fell in love! At her school they call her Mrs. Makey Makey and she led a very successful workshop for her local " Sciences in the City" event.

Amber Bridge (North Liberty, IA, USA)

Amber has trained teachers using our Invention Literacy workshop format for two years! She loves inspiring teachers with the infinite possibilities of creating inventions using Makey Makey. She's seen teachers come in with little creative confidence, yet walk out of a workshop saying, "Woohoo! I can't believe I made something today!"

Makey Makey Classroom Assistant

Makey your own classroom assistant that will offer directions, questions, and/or advice for students in a classroom.

Kimberly Boyce-Quentin (Houston, TX, USA)

Kimberly has been an integral part of our community for YEARS! We love seeing how she integrates Makey Makey into her elementary classroom. She shared this lovely sentiment with us about our little invention kit.

"Makey Makey was the first physical programming tool I discovered when I started pushing my Project Based Learning lab towards digital products. It changed everything! Four years later, it is still my most used and most versatile resource. I have been proselytizing unofficially as Makey Makey student projects have had a starring role at every campus showcase, district Expo, and training I have presented. I want to join the Makey Makey ambassador community to help spread the word about this tiny board’s simplicity to use, almost unlimited adaptability, and magical capacity as a catalyst for student creativity! Makey Makey has pushed students in every grade, Kindergarten through 5th, to go beyond basic products and see what they can do. It promotes the problem solving and perseverance that are the ultimate goal of my lab as they create, test, refine, and test again. Connecting with other Makey Makey ambassadors would be a lovely bonus – I have Twitter stalked so many members of the community and am so greatly indebted for the development of my own classroom projects and personal learning. This community has done so much for my students; I want to pass those benefits on to other educators’ students."

Jennifer Carlson (Oneida, IL, USA)

Jennifer is a new ambassador from rural Illinois in a town of only 700 PEOPLE! She believes that the simple tool of Makey Makey can make an endless change in a student's outlook on education. One that makes them think, "What else is possible?"

Brent Crowley (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

You might know Brent as the "Surfing Scratcher- Teacher, surfer, programmer" He's a pretty rad dude that who has set a standard in his life to bring value to others! One way he does that is through direct video instruction and coding experiences. He shares tutorials weekly on his site and Youtube. He wants to empower the everyday educator to integrate digital technology into their environments so that they can spark the next wave of legends.

Makey Makey Graphite Drawing Instructions

Simon Fittock (Perth, Western Australia, Australia)

Simon is another one of those rock star educators that has been a Makey Makey fanatic for quite some time! We love how he shares the love of Makey Makey with teachers and students alike! You'll have to visit his Instructables profile to check out all his awesome work with integrating making into the classroom!

MakeyMakey & Scratch Guitar

You may have made a cardboard guitar before, but have you ever made one where you can adjust the pitch and rock out like a rockstar?

Kathleen Fugle (Arlington, VA, USA)

We just love Kathleen! She's a staple in the Scratch and Makey Makey community. To be honest, she's been an ambassador at heart since she learned about us! We love how Kathleen shares her love of Makey Makey at home, at school, at conferences, the public library, district-wide PD and more! She even promotes Makey Makey to other Scratchers through the ScratchPals site.

Makey Makey Tiny Museum!

This is one of the best projects hands down for creating an authentic way to integrate Makey Makey into almost any research project!

Mathieu Gabel (Suva, Fiji)

Mathieu is a passionate maker educator at an International School in Fiji! He's joining our community to help inspire educators and be inspired!

Instructables Profile

Rebecca Gratz (Ashburn, VA, USA)

We met Rebecca just one year ago! She learned about Makey Makey from fellow ambassador Julie Kuzma and they asked us a simple question that led to quite a story! They wanted to light Christmas lights for a winter production. IT's best if you hear this from Rebecca's own voice!

"When I was introduced to Makey Makey a year ago, I had no clue the impact it would have on the way I taught - or the way my students learned. The diversity of the tool is unmatched. Students began touching it and making their work come to life through sounds and movements. Behaviors that had once stood in front of learning were completely eliminated. But more than anything that I don't think I could have done without the Makey Makey, is made one child believe in himself enough to leave his dream of being a cook at a local restaurant to hopefully become a computer programmer. He saw his potential when he modeled this tool for his peers. He made Christmas Lights come to life - and I don't think I would pick another company that has a bigger heart for learning and students than that of Joy Labz."

Instructables Profile
Twitter: @regratz87

Lina Hassan (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)

Lina is already creating interesting maker mashup projects for her students in Saudi Arabia. She shares STEAM challenges with Makey Makey in her school because she finds our invention kit extremely interesting, creative, and fun! Plus, she believes it explains the electric circuit in the easiest way for the students in different grades.

Twitter: @lina7002000
Instructables Profile

Build a Smart House With ( Makey Makey + Scratch + Brick Lab)

DSC_6947 from Lina Hassan on Vimeo.

This house mashup is so fun! Build a house with LEGO, program it's lights and more!

Naomi Harm (Cave Creek, AZ, USA)

Naomi is another rock star maker educator that shares her love of making with the world. She inspires educators and students on the how and why to help them make their design thinking ideas come to life through programming innovative circuitry projects. She is joining our ambassador program to leverage more creative conversations, global collaborations and innovative solutions amongst schools, to help address inequities in computer science education.

Kalo Haslem (Fayetteville, NC, USA)

You might remember Kalo from one of our Featured Educator posts! He's a Technology Foundations and STEAM teacher that does an excellent job of mashing up maker technologies for maximum learning potential!

Makey Makey/ Chibitronics Light-up Houses

Picture of Wire House

We just adore this mashup with two of our favorite tools, cardboard and Chibitronics!

Diego Hernández (Madrid, Spain)

Diego is part of a group in Madrid called Spacetechies. They are a center of education technology to help teach digital competence and entrepreneurship. Diego believes it is important to voice how these opportunities can reach students of all ages. He sees Spacetechies as an engine for the education for all learners.

Chris Ippolito (San José Province, Costa Rica)

You might remember Chris from our last Featured Educator Post! He views our little invention kit as the creative bridge between art, design and technology that is continually revealing itself to be a flexible and expressive educational tool. He always refer LEGO as the gateway to the "Maker Movement," but Makey Makey is now his go-to in terms of "setting the hook.” As a subscriber to the idea of "Low Floors, Wide Walls, and High Ceilings" regarding educational technology he believes Makey Makey fits the bill, allowing for a range of exploration and experimentation. Whether students are working on an arcade project, creating a unique digital instrument, or making an interactive interpretation of a novel, Makey Makey has provided his students with a tool to expand the notion of what’s possible.

Eleftheria Karagiorgou (Trikala, Thessaly, Greece)

Eleftheria is a Computer Science and Robotics teacher in Greece. She's a very active member of the Maker movement and you can view the documentation of her projects on her YouTube channel,. She implements Makey Makey projects in her classroom to teach students Physical Computing, Coding and STEM.

Helen Kardiasmenos (Sydney, NSW, Australia)

Helen is a maker educator in Australia that is already creating and sharing Makey Makey with her students, other teachers and beyond! She even inspired us to take our Doll-E 1.0 project and make it even more centered on Design thinking and empathy. Check out her guide here.

Julie Kuzma (Leesburg, VA, USA)

We met Julie last year through Josh Ajima (of Design Make Teach fame) when Colleen led area STEM integrationists through some beginning Makey Makey activities. Since then, Julie began building a Makerspace program with a class kit of Makey Makey. Working with all K-5 classrooms, she needed to find a way to connect this box of wires to the state curriculum. It began with lighting up Christmas trees and has progressed beyond all that could be imagined. As Julie puts it:

"Collaboratively working with educators in my building and county, we have built lesson plans that have included required skills and computer standards to produce alternative assessments. While working in groups, students have developed relationships, handled challenges both personal and academic and found new ways to reach the assigned goal."

Blog
Twitter: @Julie_Kuzma
Instructables: (Collaborated with Rebecca)

Fraser McKay (East Ayrshire, Scotland, UK)

Fraser has been passionate about spreading the love of Makey Makey in Scotland for the last couple of years! He is always sharing genius and fun ideas on Twitter and now on Instructables. He uses Makey Makey at school and his Coder Dojo! He loves adding physical computing activities to teach core concepts in CS and he finds Makey Makey provides an accessible way to do this. He is a huge advocate of creativity and physical computing in secondary schools in Scotland.

Things I do: Flappy Drone in early testing. Flapping their arms closes a conductive fabric circuit through @makeymakey and controls the drone through a @scratch extension on the laptop. Code changes coming: needs more forward motion! #WearableTech #FlappyBird #MakerEd pic.twitter.com/Ju2dgL7bjj
— Fraser McKay (@mrmckaycomp) April 14, 2019

He's hoping to deliver external STEM CPD for primary and secondary teachers in Scotland soon!

Twitter: @mrmckaycomp
Instructables Profile

Binary Numbers Dance Mat Game With Makey Makey

Picture of Stick Conductive Tape What could be more fun that using your feet for Math week?

Frazer Merrick (Colchester, UK)

Frazer is an amazing after school educator that we featured on the blog last school year! As a practicing artist and educator he utilizes Makey Makey in a variety of scenarios, from exhibition work in galleries to creating engaging learning environments in educational settings. You'll have to check out this amazing wind chimes project!

Interactive Wind Chimes

Perpetual Chimes from Frazer Merrick on Vimeo.

Massimiliano Minaudo (Province of Palermo, Italy)

Professor Minaudo is an Italian Teacher specializing in new technologies and is very passionate about coding ( he's even written a book on computing in education!) He researches and collaborates with the University in Palermo, Italy. He's one of the first to introduce Makey Makey in his country by sharing ideas and resources with other passionate teachers. He hopes to translate more and more projects into the Italian language which will offer the opportunity for many students in Italy to experiment and develop new learning.

Mike Mitchell (Nashville, TN, USA)

Mike Mitchell is one super interesting educator! If you missed his webinar on "Creating Sound Art with Makey Makey and Scratch" you have to go check it out! He is an artist, a musician, and is now an art director for the schools in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee.

Making Sound Art in the Shower(Makey Makey)

Matthew Moore (Leeds, England, UK)

Matthew is an awesome Makey Makey educator that is constantly amazing us and inspiring educators around the world! Read up on him on this post where we Featured his recent work at the Scratch UK conference.

Makey Makey Slider

Bradley Quentin (Houston, TX, USA)

Bradley is another one of those educators who stands out because he is everywhere doing all the things! We are honored to say we've met him in person and we are so proud of all the work he's done with Kimberly Boyce in Houston, Texas and around the world! In his own words.

"Makey Makey is a central element in my STEM lab, and I evangelize for it whenever I get the chance. Over the last 4 years, as I have built the STEM program, the Makey Makey has been at the center of many of my students’ best learning experiences. I love that this simple, yet powerful device, supports every student’s creative interests. I love that the final “wiring” must be done by the students, encouraging them to practice algorithmic thinking as they connect, test, and debug their “switches”. I love the physical computing experiences Makey Makey gives younger students, which prepares them to work with Micro:bit and Raspberry Pi later in elementary. Finally, I love the community of educators that exists around the Makey Makey. I am indebted to so many people (both at Joy Labz and in my PLN at large) for their inspiration, support, and encouragement, all of which have helped me to bring deeper and more engaging learning experiences to my students. I want to be an ambassador because I want to be a part of getting Makey Makey into more students’ hands."

All About Me Interactive Papercraft With Makey Makey

Teach your kids more about circuits and learn more about them in the process with this "All About Me" project by Bradley Quentin!

Verónica Ramos (Madrid, Spain)

Verónica also works with SpaceTechies (alongside Diego mentioned above.) She is active at introducing new technologies and methodologies to educators in Spain!

Instructables Profile

Matilde Restaino (Modena, Italy)

Matilde has spent the last few years teaching her students how to code robots and is now introducing the power of physical computing with Makey Makey and Scratch. We were impressed with her innovative builds in her application. Check out this cool Makey Makey Money Box project!

Instructables Profile
Twitter: @spacetechies

Makey Makey Money Box

Combine making, coding, and circuitry with this innovative Money box project!

Barb Seaton (Lakeside, Ontario Canada)

Barb is part of Fair Chance Learning, a company in Canada that makes connections between educators and industry and leads professional learning to empower educators to embed tech in rich and meaningful ways. She's already an official Training Partner, so we are so happy to have her join the Ambassador Program!

Twitter: @barb_seaton
Instructables Profile

Counting Change With Makey Makey

Picture of Set Up the Makey Makey

This is such a fun way to help young students learn how to use and count change!

Nathan Sekinger (Fredericksburg, VA, USA)

Nathan is a middle school librarian that knows how to "Make It...Awesome!" No but seriously, he has a maker program in his school dedicated to blending art with science and bringing all types of learners together so that they can express themselves in a new way with a new tool. He believes that Makey Makey is a highly accessible tool that when combined with Scratch, allows many pathways to student expression and learning. He sees Makey Makey as a mash-up of hilarious learning and weird science.

"Each time I use Makey Makey, I watch a barrier fall between a student's belief that technology is challenging and complicated and see it replaced with the understanding that is can be fun and creative. This happens with pencil drawings of game controllers to talking blackout poetry."

Twitter: @SekingerN
Instructables Profile

Talking Book Shelf With Makey and Scratch

We've seen talking books before, but never an entire talking book cart! This is such a fun way to promote the love of reading!

Robert Shoaff (Harrisburg, PA, USA)

Robert is an MIT grad that is devoting his "mid-life" (as he puts it) to encouraging kids in STEAM. Makey Makey has allowed Robert to share his interests in programing and design with students and parents and teachers as he believes our little invention kit is a great device for any age. He teaches annual workshops through LifeThruTech and Construct Learning.

"Every time I work with Makey Makey, I am overjoyed to have some link back to MIT via Scratch and Makey Makey, while sharing this with students, and providing the space to create."

2x MakeyMakey Floor/Table Drumpad

This Drumpad project takes your Makey Makey to the next level! Code your own midi!

Elena Vercher (Tarragona, Spain)

Elena is coordinating the STEAM project at her school, but also trains teachers and uses Makey Makey with students of all ages! She's also been developing eTwinning projects where different schools from different countries around Europe (Italy, Spain...) have gathered together to create projects using the Makey Makey. Make sure you check out her Instructables! She has created some magical projects for your students to try out!

"Every time I share Makey Makey with a group of teachers and they start saying "It's magic", it makes me remind why I'm using it... It is MAGIC! :)"

Twitter: @elenavercher
Instructables Profile

Genius Hour With Makey Makey!

Elena does an excellent job of sharing how to start a Genius Hour in your own school in this Instructable!

Toni Wescott (Hastings, New Zealand)

Toni shares her kiwi innovation and ingenuity with over 200 teachers and over 5000 students a year! She recognizes the engagement, creativity and innovation Makey Makey encourages in both teachers and students! She's excited to continue and explore and push the boundaries of how teachers and students can create with Makey Makey!

Twitter: @toni_westcott
Instructables Profile

Makey Me a Chair!

This is an absolutely fabulous lesson that focuses on empathy-based design. Toni's thought of everything to help you guide your students through the design thinking process!

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