Exploring Circuits with Little Bits and Makey Makey
By Cameron Riesenberger, Teen Services Outreach Librarian, Pikes Peak Library District
November 16, 2018
Little Bits and Makey Makey are two fun, modular options for exploring coding and circuitry concepts. At a recent STEM festival for Cool Science, Pikes Peak Library District hosted a table where attendees could explore circuits, conductivity, and coding.
We had two stations, one for Little Bits where the attendees could explore the different blocks and their functions, and one with the Makey Makey module for Little Bits connected to a laptop running a version of Simon Says built in the Scratch programming language. The two stations show were meant to illustrate that these were platforms where you could build up knowledge and continue to explore computational and coding concepts in more and more depth.
Type: Active
Age: Late elementary
Optimal size: 6-10
Estimated cost: $51 - $100
Planning time: <2 hours
Frequency: One-time
Learning outcomes
Attendees are able to:
- Experiment, prototype, and test new ides.
- Demonstrate Curiosity.
- Create Original work or responsibly remix existing content to make something new.
Instructions
I encourage you to explore the educator resources I have linked below. Both of these platforms are very versatile, and those resources will give you a great idea of what is possible. This program was intended to be a short program since we were just a part of a larger festival. My hope was to keep things simple.
Little Bits are small magnetic 'bits' that snap together in endless configurations for protyping and learning about electricity and conductivity. For this program we used a set of basic bits, which include power source, buzzer, LED lights, pressure sensors, and sliders. The bits were placed on the table next to a card that described the bit's function. From there, it's up to the attendees to decide what to do and I was there to help if asked. When a new person approached the table, I explained what the bits were and asked if they could use the bits to get a LED to light up. If they got stuck, I asked them how they turned the lights on in their house. That was usually enough to get them started.
Once they were able to get the LED to light up, I took a step back and let them explore different possibilities with the other bits. Unsurprisingly, the buzzer was the most popular bit since it makes noise. The kids created a wide variety of devices in a short amount of time and they also collaborated with the other people at the table since there was a limited number of bits to work with.
After someone had spent awhile with the Little Bits, I asked them to move down the table where I had the Makey Makey module set up with a laptop running the Simon Says Scratch program. Makey Makey is a breadboard system (similar to Arduino) that uses alligator clips to make connections and circuits. I set up this station with with the Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green alligator clips connected to the Makey Makey, but left the other connection open so that the kids could decide what they could use for buttons. I had balls of aluminum foil, paper clips, pencil on paper, and leaves from a tree. These are all conductive materials (I didn't tell them that at first) and could be used as buttons. From there, they connected what they thought would work and played the game. If they scored ten or more points, they were given a free book.
Evaluation
This program met all of the above learning outcomes. Prototyping and trying new things when something different work was the biggest part of the program; the kids would try different options when they couldn't get the LED to light. They also demonstrated curiosity and responsible remixing by watching what their peers were doing and playing the Simon Says game.
Other resources
Makey Makey Labs: https://labz.makeymakey.com/
Librarian's guide to LittleBits: http://e.littlebits.com/download-librarians-guide-welcome
Other Scratch modules for Makey Makey: https://scratch.mit.edu/search/projects?q=makey+makey