Makey Makey facts for kids
The Makey Makey: An Invention Kit for Everyone is a fun tool that lets you connect everyday objects to your computer. Imagine turning a banana into a keyboard key! It uses a special circuit board, alligator clips, and a USB cable. This kit helps you complete electrical circuits. When you complete a circuit, Makey Makey sends a signal to your computer. This signal acts like a keyboard press or a mouse click. Because of this, Makey Makey works with almost any computer program or website. If a program uses keyboard or mouse input, you can use Makey Makey with it!
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Discovering Makey Makey: Your Invention Kit
The Makey Makey started as a creative project. Two students from MIT, Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum, created it. They worked at the MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten. Their goal was to make inventing easy and fun for everyone. Before Makey Makey, they also helped create other cool tools. These included Drawdio, Singing Fingers, and the Scratch programming language.
How Makey Makey Got Started
The first idea for Makey Makey came to life in 2010. It was tested at a workshop in San Francisco. People there used it to create a game called "Drum Pants." They used a beach ball as a controller and water buckets as foot-pads. This allowed them to play the game Dance Dance Revolution in a new way. More tests happened in 2011 and 2012. The final version was shown at the Maker Faire in San Francisco in 2012.
Funding Our Fun Inventions
Makey Makey got its start with help from a Kickstarter campaign. Kickstarter is a way for people to support new ideas and projects. The campaign raised over $50,000 to bring Makey Makey to life. After its successful funding, Makey Makey was featured in many popular magazines. These included Mashable, Wired, and New Scientist.
How Makey Makey Works Its Magic
Inside every Makey Makey board is a small computer chip. This chip is very clever! It can sense tiny electrical changes. When you connect an object, like a piece of fruit, to the Makey Makey with an alligator clip, you create a path for electricity. When you touch the fruit, you complete the circuit. The Makey Makey chip senses this change. It then tells your computer that you pressed a key or clicked the mouse. It's like magic, but it's really just science! This allows you to turn almost anything into a computer input.
Awards and Cool Recognition
Makey Makey has received some special honors for its innovative design:
- (2014) It became part of The Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.
- (2014) It won "Best of Toy Fair" from Popular Science magazine.
