Maker Project

3 Ways to Makey Makey a Floor Piano

/ gravescolleen / Leave a comment

Oh my goodness! I can’t believe I forgot to share this guide!

I made this for my job over at Makey Makey and it’s a fun way to start thinking about how you are completing a circuit when creating a Makey Makey piano. So move that bunch of bananas, get out your HVAC tape, and let’s make some oversized pianos.

 

Head to the Labz Guide!

Behind the scenes info:

This piano guide took me a couple of weeks to build! I had to build it wrong three times to figure out the best and easiest way to replicate a full scale piano with sharps included. Plus, after I was completely done, I was in love with the movable piano. So I built another one on a yoga mat and now I can take it with me wherever I go! The yoga mat build is so easy and will only take you about 30 minutes to build!

I love that my maker friends around the world are starting to make their own pianos and even remixing it! Plus, Meredith over at Geeky Teach even made her own tutorial!

Bonus: This project was even featured on the home page over at Instructables!

So how will you build a floor piano? Share your ideas in the comments or send me links to your creations!

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Giveaway: Crafty Kids Guide to DIY Electronics and Chibitronics Kit!

/ gravescolleen / 26 Comments

Have you checked out Helen Leigh’s amazing maker book yet?

 

If not, you are going to want to get a copy of the Crafty Kids Guide to DIY Electronics for your library (or yourself) ASAP!

About the Projects

This maker project book is broken up into four parts:

  • Paper Circuits
  • Soft Circuits (Sewing Circuits)
  • Wearables ( Which combine the knowledge of the previous two chapters to create unique wearable creations!)
  • Robots

Helen has some really fun paper circuit projects that utilize regular LEDs and Chibitronics LED stickers (which are some LED circuit stickers that I’m a tad obsessed with. Read my posts about Chibi stickers here.)

My 9 year old daughter thoroughly enjoyed making and hacking the cardboard doorbell!

 

 

I also love her ideas for introducing soft circuits, like the Circuit Sampler which will help young makers learn about short circuits, series circuits, and parallel circuits. I also personally really want to make the “Grumpy Monster with a DIY tilt sensor.”

The wearable projects are interesting and the robot projects are all doable for kids ages 8 and up! (Or younger if they are interested!)

Maker Spotlights

One of the things I think is really cool about this book is that each section ends with a maker spotlight. For these spotlights, Helen has interviewed some really cool female makers from all over the world! Like check out the maker Coco Sato and her gesture sensing origami fan! Plus, she has one of the most beautiful Instagram feeds that is sure to inspire some origami madness.

The Giveaway!

So do you want to win a free copy of this book along with a Chibitronics starter kit? Chibitronics - Chibi Lights - LED Circuit Stickers STEM Starter Kit

Here is how to enter:

  • Comment on this blog post and let my readers know what kind of makerspace you run (or hope to run!) Also, please make sure to subscribe to the comments or leave your Twitter handle in case you win! This is how I will contact you.)
  • I have to approve comments to keep out the SPAM, so be patient! 😀
  • Then share this blog post with others so they can learn about Helen Leigh’s Crafty Kids Guide to DIY Electronics!

There can only be one winner and because shipping overseas is costly, I can only ship to a US shipping location. (Sorry about that!)

Giveaway ends in one week on February 28th! So start commenting and sharing!