Making Circuits with Makey Makey

Welcome to our page! We will be discussing how to use a Makey Makey board in order to create a Guitar Hero. The end goal is for students to be able to understand the concept of circuits. Through the use of a Makey Makey board, a computer, and some foil, students will be able to make connections of electricity to a cardboard guitar that will play music with the help of some foil! 

Instead of teaching students through lecture, we thought an interactive game would be a good way to help students learn circuits! Students are more likely to remember something they have fun doing, and we believe the Makey Makey board will help educators make an engaging lesson on teaching the current of electricity through the use of wires to the connection of a computer and cardboard.

This lesson plan engages students through the use of technology, yet advances students' learning through a hands-on activity resulting in more content knowledge. In essence, students are learning through doing. This innovation and inquiry based learning can be used for students 8 years old and up. 

If you would like more information about the experiences had with this project, feel free to check out our blog posts: 
In order for students to have an understanding of what their end goal should be, we created student friendly objectives to help guide them through the activity

Objectives

  • Students will be able to experiment with a Makey Makey board by connecting alligator clips and wires in order to program a homemade guitar hero
  • Students will be able to produce a project in order to introduce students to creating circuits
Below is a simplified agenda of the teacher's expectation

Teacher Lesson Plan

  1. Students read objectives and as a group discuss what they will be doing according to the objective. We will then discuss key terms and define them if need be. (2 min)
    1. Alligator clip
    2. Circuit
    3. Guitar Hero
    4. Current (part of the circuit definition)
  2. Instruct students to go to appropriate stations and follow step by step directions (1)
  3. Students build project (10)
  4. Students play project (5)

Supplies Required:
  • Cardboard (for guitar)
  • Foil (keys and grounder)
  • Tape (tape the foil on the opposite side of the “guitar”
  • ​Makey Makey kit
  • Sharpies (green, red, yellow, blue, orange)
  • Computer
  • Exacto knife
Planning Process
Here are step-by-step instructions to ensure students' completion of the project.

Makey Makey Guitar Hero Instructions

Steps
  1. Gather supplies
    1. Cardboard guitar cut out
    2. Makey Makey kit
    3. Computer
    4. Piece of foil
    5. Sharpies
    6. Tape
  2. Plug Makey Makey board into the computer.
    1. Close any pop ups on computer
    2. Set aside until step #4
  3. Create a wristband with foil and tape
  4. Connect an alligator clip to EARTH
  5. Cut 5 strips of foil for “buttons”.
    1. Color each strip with a green, red, yellow, blue, and orange.
    2. Tape each strip on guitar handle in the following order:
      1. Green
      2. Red
      3. Yellow
      4. Blue
      5. Orange
  6. Attach an alligator clip to one strip and then one of the following:
    1. UP
    2. DOWN
    3. LEFT
    4. RIGHT
    5. SPACE
  7. Connect the EARTH alligator clip to your foil wristband
  8. Select the level of difficulty you would like to play
    1. Easy (younger students - click on easy): Twinkle Twinkle Little Star https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/59071050/#fullscreen             
    2. Medium: Eye of the Tiger (click on hard) https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/59071050/#fullscreen
    3. Harder (older students): Sweet Child of Mine https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/60161692/#fullscreen
    4. Challenge (2 song choices) http://games.co.za/adagio.html
Notes if you are struggling:
  • Adjust alligator clips if there is an error
  • Adjust foil strips if there is an error (i.e. length, thickness, location)
In order to effectively play the game, it is essential that the alligator clips are connected to the correct section of the Makey Makey board. ​
Experimenting with Makey Makey Guitar Hero

Keys

Video Example

Lesson Extension

If you and/or your students are interested in Guitar Hero, here are a few example computer games that work with the Makey Makey board. ​
​There are many games and musical instruments for Makey Makey activities that are made and published on scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/all. This lesson can also be taken a step further and students can learn to code using Scratch to make their own game for their Makey Makey board.