Create Make Learn: Code You Can Touch with Scratch and Makey Makey

Monday, October 24, 2022

Code You Can Touch with Scratch and Makey Makey

Fall is a perfect time to introduce a Code You Can Touch project with a harvest theme. This project was originally created when two fifth grade teachers from our Create Make Learn community asked if I could help them introduce coding using Scratch. The results was a fun Fall display that started in their classroom during the the Fall School Open House event and then became part of a Champlain Valley Maker Faire event.

I recently organized the resources so they could be used to introduce a Code You Can Touch unit using the most recent version of Scratch. Here are the slides that outline the approach I would take to introduce computational thinking to a group of students using Scratch and Makey Makey.

During this process, the students will experience the principles of computation

Decomposition: Breaking down data, processes, or problems into smaller, manageable parts
Pattern Recognition: Observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data
Abstraction: Identifying the general principles that generate these patterns
Algorithm Design: Developing the step by step instructions for solving this and similar problems

The process was divided into three parts.

Part 1: Unplugged Activity

To get started you will want to

Print out the following cards ahead of time.

My first time trying this activity, I organized students in groups of 10 and passed out cards 3 - 12 to each group. Assign one person to be the CODER and the rest of the students to be a piece of code.

Ask the coder to gather ‘pieces of code’ and sequence them in order so that a musical scale is played when the green flag is lowered (clicked).

Have students simulate 'running the code' or going through the sequence of commands. The coder touches the student with the green flag to 'start' the program.

For the next round

Print out cards 13 - 19 and cut them in half. Give a group of a dozen students one of those commands to hold.

Students with the code library cards will need to pair up one Play Note card with one Event card during this challenge.

The pair of students should hold their cards so they are touching. Each pair of students should spread around the room.

Once the coder has completed the challenge, make sure to try the algorithm by having the teacher or another student ‘test’ the program by clicking on each event to play a musical scale.

Part 2: Introduce block coding with SCRATCH

Scratch was developed at MIT Media Lab to teach even our youngest learners to create with code/ https://scratch.mit.edu/