One of our school sites has had sprinkler issues in their campus garden. I had recently introduced Makey Makeys to four of the classes ranging in grades 1 - 4 (here's the blog post
click here). The awesome principal who has her contractors license and knows a thing or two about sprinkler solenoids decided to come up with a great Makey Makey simulation for some of her students.
Aurora noticed that the Makey Makey alligator clips matched the colors of the wires to the solenoids (she substituted grey for blue). She also noticed that the Earth clip on the Makey Makey simulates the grounding wire for the solenoids. So she realized that if she had the students set up the Makey Makey so that it would play the piano using the color coded alligator clips (grey for blue), the students would be able to go to the sprinkler system and wire up the solenoids for the different watering stations and get their garden watering system functional for the spring and summer months.
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| Students Simulating the Sprinkler Solenoids |
The best part of this lesson was how she grouped the students. The first group had 4 fourth graders, two of which are special education and emotionally disturbed. The second group had 4 second and third graders and again had two special education students. All of the students had used the Makey Makeys with me at least one time. I was able to watch Aurora and her students as they quickly used the Makey Makeys to simulate the system and then take that understanding and go outside to take turns wiring the solenoids.
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Students testing the system and watching each station water the garden.
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It was an awesome lesson for the principal, Aurora, and her students who now understand more about circuits and wiring in a real life context.
