Disney Helps Us MaKeyMaKey A Better Future From Scratch
My students need 10 MaKey MaKey kits, Play-Doh to use as a conductor, books on Scratch programming, and extra alligator clips to design video games about sustainability.
"Children learn best by making things, whether physical or virtual" This quote from Cynthia Solomon explains what our students already know - concepts are much easier to grasp when you are given the opportunity to create something. Our students are eager to discover their world through making.
We are a Title 1 magnet middle school with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
We are located in the inner city; many of our students come from low-income housing. 70% of our students are on free or reduced lunch. Our students come from all over the county, and represent all races, colors and ethnicities. For many of our students, their only exposure to modern technology comes from the school and public libraries.
We are seeking to help bridge the Digital Divide by exposing these students to modern technologies which will be essential for them when they enter college and the workforce. Our students already love video games, and this project will help them to see how creating their own video game can make a difference. By building a video game about things students can do to save the planet and sharing it with other classes, they can have an impact on the environment through things they create.
My Project
If you've been around a middle-schooler lately, you know that they love video games. We want to take that love of gaming to the next level. With this project, our students in game design classes will learn about the programming language Scratch. They will be introduced to Scratch through lessons and the books in this project. They will then be challenged to think of one thing that they can do to help save the planet and design a video game that can help other students to learn it.
MaKeyMaKey will help the students to take this project from the digital into the physical. MaKeyMaKey is a device which plugs into a computer and allows you to create a controller from anything that conducts electricity. Look for YouTube videos to see it in action.
Picture this: a maze where touching a pencil sketch of items that can be recycled will help you get to the prize. A trivia contest where touching an actual banana adds it to a compost pile on the screen. The possibilities are endless!
Exposing students to hands-on technology will engage them in exploring, discovering and learning and will help to ensure their success in the future.
Getting to make and create will transform our students from consumers of things into makers of things and will foster their sense of creativity. By giving our students a chance to experiment with video games they design themselves to teach others sustainability, we can prepare them to be the engineers, inventors and scientists of the 21st Century
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Rendina and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
