MaKey MaKey Scratch Operation Game

If you are interested in step-by-step instructions on building your own MaKey MaKey Scratch Operation Game, consider purchasing my book, The Invent to Learn Guide to Fun, which leads you through the process step by step!

I have been designing an Operation-type board game that uses the MaKey MaKey to interface with a computer running Scratch.

I started with a simple prototype left over from my squishy circuit Operation game. I was curious whether the MaKey MaKey would read a closed circuit on this hardware. Good news: it works! Connect an alligator clip cable from the MaKey MaKey to the game board's foil "game port." Connect the MaKey MaKey board's Earth port to another alligator clip cable.




I wrote a simple Scratch program that looks for the space bar to be pressed. If the circuit is closed via the MaKey MaKey the cat turns green and makes a sound to indicate that you touched the foil. The prototype worked! The MaKey MaKey recognized the closed circuit!

With everything in place the game can be connected to the MaKey MaKey and along with the laptop running Scratch and my project, one can play Operation!




Comments

Maggie said…
This is such a great idea! I've been struggling to come up with projects and activities using MaKey MaKey with K-2nd grade students. Maybe I can adapt this one for them. Thanks for the inspiration.
jay said…
Would you be willing to enter this into our MaKey MaKey Group How-To contest? We used it as an example because it was so good.

http://makeymakey.com/contest.php
Buster said…
This is a fabulous use of the MaKey MaKey. I am so appreciative that you took so many pictures and explained the whole process. I will definitely be using this at our school.
Josh Burker said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
epola said…
Thanks a lot for sharing your hard work, ideas and resources. I'm considering your game for our yrs 4/5 Scratch/Makey makey projects.