Unlock the potential of interactive clocks to revolutionize the way time is taught. Dive into the "How-To Guide: Interactive Clocks Edition" and watch as learning comes to life in a whole new way. Get ready to inspire, engage, and innovate!
| Craft a Paper Clock |
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Learn to craft and code an interactive clock using Makey Makey and Scratch so students can physically engage with the clock, reinforcing their understanding in a tangible way.
5 Minute Interval Makey Makey ClockTo get started, craft a clock with two pieces of cardstock.  If you have a Cricut cutter, you can use this design in the Cricut Design Space to draw and cut your clock.  Use contrasting color so the time intervals show up clearly.
 Cut a minute hand and hour hand out of cardstock. Cover the minute hand with foil and use a brass fastener to hold the hands in place. Make sure the foil in the minute hand connects with the brass fastener as this will be the EARTH connection for your Makey Makey clock controller.
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| Add Conductive Touchpoints |
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Add brass fasteners at 12, 3, 6, 9 intervals to make an easy clock with conductive touchpoints at 15 minute intervals.  If you want to code each 5 minute interval, place more brass fasteners around the clock.
 You can code your clock to say time phrases, the minute hand, or even speak the time phrases in different languages! Create a "change mode" section with two brass fasteners so you can have multiple functions with this one clock. One brass fastener will function as EARTH and the other will function as Space key. When someone touches both as once, this will change the mode of the clock.  Make sure to label all the key presses on the back of the clock to stay organized.
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| Wire Up Project |
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You'll have two EARTH connections on this controller. One EARTH connection will be the minute hand on the clock and one will be in the "change mode" section. On the back of your clock, use conductive tape to connect the EARTH connections and now you will only need one alligator clip for EARTH!
 For the easy clock wire the following intervals to the appropriate key press on Makey Makey.
Makey Makey Easy Clock
If you want to wire up the 5 minute intervals, add these connections:
Makey Max 5 Minute Clock:
Up Arrow : 00 minutes W key : 5 minutes A key : 10 minutes Right Arrow : 15 minutes S key : 20 minutes D key : 25 minutes Down Arrow : 30 minutes F key : 35 minutes G key : 40 minutes Left Arrow : 45 minutes Number 1 : 50 minutes Number 2 : 55 minutes |
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| Optional: Remap for Makey Max |
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Make sure you have a Makey Makey of 1.4 or higher to use with the Makey Makey Backpack. (You can remap 1.2 or higher and use jumper wires if you do not have the Makey Makey Backpack bundle) Click here to open remap page!Follow the illustration on the remap page to place alligator clips. One clip from the up arrow to down arrow and one clip connected from the left arrow to the right arrow. This will put Makey Makey into a remap state.
Once you are in the remap software, hold EARTH and move the cursor on the page by pressing the arrow key inputs on Makey Makey. When you get to the mouse header section, press click, then navigate to change the top mouse input to the number 1. Repeat until you've changed all of the mouse inputs to the numbers 1-6. (For this project you only need to change two mouse controls to the numbers 1 and 2.)
Make sure to save your settings!After all keys are remapped, click the down arrow and tap SAVE to maintain the remapped keys. Until you put Makey Makey into a remap state again, these inputs are now remapped to your new choices. You might want to label your Makey Makey so you remember that it is remapped! (You can always go into remap mode and put Makey Makey key inputs back to the default.) Once your Makey Makey mouse controls are remapped, you are ready to attach the Makey Max backpack. Align all pins on the backpack board with the headers on Makey Makey. Gently squeeze the boards together with even pressure, making sure all pins enter the corresponding holes.
Test your inputs on Makey Max with the piano app, or open a document and see if pressing the remapped inputs works as the number 1 and 2.
Wire up your clock and you are ready to get started coding!  |
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| Coding in Scratch |
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For this Scratch project, when the minute hand touches each interval, it will speak the minutes, time phrase, or a time phrase in another language. To do this, you need to add the Speech to Text and Translate extensions in Scratch. Then you can easily combine translate with "Text to Speech" to have a talking multilingual clock!  Sprite CostumesYou'll want to create a clock sprite with multiple costumes that show the time based on the each key press. Make sure to label each costume with the time interval.
 Create BackdropsCreate backdrops for time phrases, minutes, and any language translations you want to code.
 Each backdrop will actually function as the logic that lets the program know which phrase to speak.
Once you have costumes and backdrops created, you are ready to code each key press. The easiest way to do this is to code the first key and then duplicate the program.
To use this mode concept to play multiple phrases from one key press, you will nest if/else statements inside of each other. When you press the trigger key, the program will look to see which backdrop variable you are on and then play the sound accordingly. (So if the backdrop number is equal to one, it will play the sound "00 minutes." However, if the backdrop number is equal to 3, it will translate "Top of the hour" to Spanish and speak the translation outloud.)
You'll need to place a "backdrop number" reporting block into the operator block "blank = blank."
We will nest these if/else statements to tell the project, "If the backdrop number equals a certain number" do this. Otherwise check to see what number the backdrop is on and do that command instead!  Nest each "if/else" statement so that the code will read from the top to the bottom and look for the backdrop number variable that is showing in the project and then will "speak" accordingly.
Here is the full code for one key press at "Zero Minutes or 12 o clock."  Repeat this process for each key press. Clock Face and Key PressesSimple clock:
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| Play with Time! |
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After it's coded and wired up, you are ready to play with time! Easy Clock with 15 minute intervals
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Supplies
- Makey Makey
- Cardstock
- Brass Fasteners
- Alligator Clips
- Makey Max Backpack (optional)
