Makey Makey Workshop

When searching for tech program ideas for tweens and teens, I found Makey Makey to be one of the easiest and most rewarding.

What is Makey Makey, you ask? It basically an invention kit that allows user to take regular objects that they'd find at home and connect them to the computer. The kit looks like this:

Source

You can buy a kit for around $50 on Amazon. We purchased 8 kits so that we could offer a workshop for up to 24 participants (having them work in groups of 2 or 3). I created a one-time, 1 hour workshop for grades 3 to 5 that you can alter for really any group ages 8 and up. Here's what I did:

1. Give a brief overview of electricity/circuits. Because using the Makey Makey is basically just making circuits and some kids might not have learned about them yet in school, I showed them a brief video from Bill Nye (or you can use his Electricity DVD which has the same short video)

2. Show some short videos of cool Makey Makey projects. First I showed them the introductory video from the Makey Makey website. Then I showed them some other cool projects from YouTube, such as the guy playing "O Say Can You See" by eating/drinking. I literally just Googled "cool Makey Makey projects" to find my examples.

3. Go over the parts of the Makey Makey. As I explained each part, I had the tweens follow along by connecting the various cables as well as the Makey Makey itself to the computer.

4. Give the tweens specific challenges to make sure they were all on the same page. I used the "How-To" page of the Makey Makey site for challenges:

• Use the Makey Makey with the space bar key
• Play the drum kit using the Makey Makey

You can give them more challenges before setting them loose if you want, but I found these to be the best two in order to get them comfortable using the kits. I briefly explained the more complicated connections on the back of the Makey Makey board in case they wanted to try its but told them that was completely optional.

5. Go over the various conductive materials available to use. We briefly talked about conductivity and the items I set out for the tweens to try out. These included:

• bananas
• celery/carrots
• marshmallows
• gummy bears
• aluminum foil
• quarters
• pencils/paper
• Play Doh

6. Let them tinker! I gave them free reign to try out the Makey Makey and came around to help with any questions/troubleshooting. The most popular items were the Play Doh, the marshmallows, the gummy candy, and the bananas. The pencil/paper drawing were hit and miss. The next time, I would practice using these materials beforehand. I also gave them some links to games that worked well with the Makey Makey controller:

Mario Bros. - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/31583772/ 

Pac Man - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/14608394/ 

Scratch Piano: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2543877/ 

Whack A Frog: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2543877/ 

Tetris: http://www.freetetris.org/game.php 

Full Pac Man: http://www.freepacman.org/welcome.php 

Pong (uses mouse): https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10128515/ 

Pong (2 player): https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/49420956/

7. (Optional) Just before class ended, I had them create a circle holding hands and played the bongo game. This showed them that we could create a giant circuit using just ourselves!

That's it! I'm planning a workshop for teens where we get more involved with what the Makey Makey can do.

Have you ever done a Makey Makey program? What did you do?

Anime Club: Onigiri

Onigiri (or rice balls) is a popular Japanese dish. It's also pretty easy to make! So I decided to try it as an activity at my last anime club meeting.

I found this website, which details a great method for making onigiri using saran wrap.

What You Need:

• Sushi rice (You must use sushi rice specifically. You can find it at your local Asian market or Amazon. See the website above for more info on the differences in rice.)
• Salt
• Water
• Saran wrap
• Small bowls, cups, or round containers (I found these, which ended up being the perfect size.)
• Fillings such as tuna, chicken, pickles, etc. Really anything salty is good.
• Nori

I made a big batch of rice in my rice cooker the day of the program. If you have an anime club and do several food programs with them, a rice cooker is a great investment!

(Please forgive the poor quality photos. I was taking them while the teens were watching anime with the lights down.)

1. First, put some Saran wrap in the bowl. Sprinkle some water, then salt in the bottom making sure to cover the sides too.

2. Then scoop some rice in the bottom. I measured out about 1/2 cup for each teen, which made a pretty good sized rice ball.

3. If you want to add a filling, poke a hole in the middle with your finger. If not, skip to Step 6.

4. Scoop a small amount of filling into the hole. For fillings, I provided canned tuna, teriyaki chicken, dill pickles, soy sauce, and bonito flakes for those that wanted a more traditional filling. The teriyaki chicken was by far the most popular choice with my teens.

5. Cover the hole with a small amount of rice.

6. Gather the ends of the Saran wrap and twist in order to get all of the air out.

7. Shape the rice using your hands into balls, or triangles, or whatever shape you like! Add a strip of nori seaweed to the bottom to make it easier to hold/eat.

I had some toasted sesame seeds left over from another program, so I set those out for the teens to add as a topping (right).

One of my teens was really good at making triangles. Me? Not so much...

That's it! These were so easy to make and the teens loved it. I highly recommend this for any anime club.


Have you made onigiri at your library? What other food programs worked for you?

Pizza and Pages: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Type of Book: Historical

Plot Summary: From Goodreads: "II have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine - and I will do anything, anything to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France - an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team."

Average Teen Rating: 8.13
The teens really liked this one. They loved the writing. I also printed out some photos and information about female fighter pilots/planes during World War II.


Discussion Questions:

You can find some great discussion questions here, here, and here.

Pizza and Pages: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Type of Book: Fantasy

Plot Summary: From Goodreads: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001). Unforgettable!"

Average Teen Rating: 6.83
My teens had been asking for us to read this in book club for awhile. Most of them loved it, with just a couple saying that it was "too slow" for them. Reading this also sparked a big debate about the book vs. the films, which was highly entertaining!


Discussion Questions:

There definitely wasn't a shortage of discussion guides for this title. I found some here, here, here, here, and here.

Cookie Caster

By now, I've gotten a couple of 3D printing classes for teens under my belt. But I wanted to branch out to the tweens somehow and introduce them to this awesome technology. Thanks to School Library Journal, I got the idea to run a class for tweens (grades 3 to 5) using a program called Cookie Caster.

This program was super easy to run! Kids can create their own design either by using points (anchors) and lines to design something freehand, or by tracing an image from the web using a tool called Magic Trace. They can then preview their creations as a cookie cutter and download it as a .stl file for printing.

Drawing Freehand Example

Magic Trace Example

First, I showed the tweens our 3D printer. I had asked IT to have a cookie cutter printing at the start of class so that everyone could see what it looked like to print something. I quickly explained the basic parts of the printer and how the filament comes out to make a print. Then I passed around some cookie cutter examples that I had made ahead of time, so they could see what the filament felt like. I also showed them some other prints that our IT department had made to show off the different things the printer could do. This was probably the part the tweens got the most excited about!

Next, I went over the basic controls. I showed the tweens how to create the anchors and how to add/delete edges. Then I showed them how to use the Trace and Magic Trace features (Note: The Magic Trace tool doesn't always work. It depends on the image you choose.). I also showed them the Gallery and how to upload/alter someone else's design.

At the end of class, I went around and downloaded everyone's design to a flash drive to print out later. I also showed them how to create an account and save their designs for later if they wanted to. The entire program took about an hour. Here are some cookie cutter examples I created:

How It Went:

The program overall went pretty smoothly!

Unfortunately, the image search wasn't working, so I showed them how to find something on Google Images and upload it to the Cookie Caster program. I was hoping that more of them would create an original design freehand, but once they learned about the tracing option, most wanted to just do that instead. Oh well...

 I chose to host it in December as a sort-of holiday program since baking and gift giving can be a big part of that time of year. I gave participants a choice of having their cookie cutter printed with red, green, or white filament. Our wonderful IT department then spent the next couple of days printing out everyone's design. I then notified everyone as their cookie cutters were finished and ready for pick-up.

Have you done a Cookie Caster program before? Or what other 3D printing programs have you done for tweens?

Pizza and Pages: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson

Type of Book: Sci-Fi

Plot Summary: From Goodreads: "Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers?"

Average Teen Rating: 6.85
My teens appreciated the story and the themes (which garnered some good discussion) but felt the writing as a whole seemed a little "young" for them. Also, some were reluctant to read it because of the cover and the tagline, which made it seem like a hardcore romance. This lead us to an interesting side discussion about book covers!


Discussion Questions:

Lots of good discussion questions out there! I found mine here, here, and here.

Anime Club: Holiday Party

For the past couple of years, I decided to host a sort-of end of the year holiday party for our Anime Club meeting. We still screen anime, but we have some special activities to celebrate too:

Bubble Tea

My anime teens love bubble tea! It's pretty easy to do. I purchased black iced tea bags (such as these) and made the tea in a plastic pitcher the day before so that it's nice and cold for the meeting. I also set out the following:

• Tapioca pearls (a.k.a. the foundation of bubble tea) - You can find them at your local Asian market or online. It's best to make these just before the program begins so that they stay soft.
• Sweetened condensed milk
• Chai tea - I buy this, but you can also make your own with tea bags
• Coconut milk
• Clear cups
• Ice
• Spoons
• Bubble tea straws
• Sugar (optional)

I tell the teens that the best combinations are black tea and condensed milk or chai tea and coconut milk, but that they can mix and match however they like. 

Just for fun, I also set out some Hello Panda cookies, which went over really well with the teens.

Manga Ornaments

I purchased some clear ornaments ahead of time. The day of, I set out the ornaments, mod podge, scissors, and discarded manga. The teens then could cut/rip up the manga and glue the pieces to the ornament using the mod podge. This was definitely messy, but fun! (And it's a great way to use old mangas!)

Manga White Elephant Exchange

This was an optional activity for the club. If teens wanted to participate, they had to bring one volume of a manga wrapped up. Then we sat in a circle and played by the classic White Elephant rules.

Do you host a holiday party for your anime club? If so, what do you do?