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The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project

Assistive Technology with Makey Makey, pt. 2

Creating an Assistive Technology Board

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Assistive Technology Using Makey Makey, pt. 2,

Creating an Assistive Technology Board

A 4th - 5th Grade STEM Lesson

Mandy Fierro

January 2024

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Notes for Teachers

This unit walks students through a service project to create an interactive board for students at other grade levels to use.

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Part 1 explored using Makey Makeys to test for conductors and insulators.

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This part uses the knowledge from part 1 to create assistive technology.

List of Materials

  • Makey Makey kits: one per pair of students
  • Paper
  • Conductive Materials
  • Computers
  • Scratch.mit.edu logins

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Standards

Educational Technology

3-5.3.D Students, in collaboration with an educator, explore real-world problems and issues and collaborate with others to find answers to solutions.

ELA

EL.4-5.6. I-1: participate in extended conversations and discussions about a variety of topics and texts.

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Physical Science

4.P4U1.2 Develop and use a model that explains how energy is moved from place to place through electric currents.

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Science and Engineering Practices

3-5 Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

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Objectives:

Today I can:

  • brainstorm ideas to support other students in our school.
  • use the design process to build a prototype.

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Agenda (10 - 15 days, 40 min lessons each day)

  • Brainstorm ideas
  • Design a board
  • Build a board
  • Coding
  • Testing and Feedback
  • Planning for the next iteration

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Intro/Driving Question/Opening

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Assistive Technology Board

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Assistive Technology 2

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Brainstorming Ideas

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  • What makes assistive technology?

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  • What are some needs we see here at our school?

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Brainstorm ideas your team can create their boards around.

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Design an Interactive Board.

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Some things to consider:

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  • How will you lay out your categories?
  • How will students interact with your board?
  • What will be the overall theme?

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Building Your Assistive Technology

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  • Use the available materials to begin constructing your board

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Coding Your Board

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Using Scratch, create the programming for your sound board.

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Testing and Feedback

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Set up your Assistive Technology with the Makey Makey and your Scratch program.

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Using the feedback form, test each other’s products and give honest feedback about their project.

Assistive Technology Feedback

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Next Steps

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Review the feedback left by your classmates.

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Determine what components should be kept.

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Determine what improvements should be made in the next iteration.

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Assessment

  • Student feedback forms

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  • Student plans for next steps

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Differentiation

  1. Group students according to needs. Students who will need more support can either be in a teacher-led group, or paired with a partner who can support.

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  • Students can be given sentence frames to support organizing their thoughts.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Due to the open-ended nature of this project, students are able to take this project in a direction that fits their level.