On Saturday, March 19, 2016, during the 100 Girls of Code HTML workshop, the girls took some time to dig deep into the world of the wildly popular Makey Makey STEAM kit. They couldn't wait to get started and rushed to open the boxes we had received from Eduporium—an educator’s dream for one-stop shopping and the latest STEM classroom technology! We must say that some of the facilitators entered the Makey Makey activity with some trepidation, however, most were curious and excited to explore the possibilities! Once the girls realized they got to tinker and experiment, there was a whole new level of anticipation!
For girls between the ages of 7 and 8, there were some technical difficulties at first. They were not able to get it to work using small stuffed animals. however, they were invited to attend the classroom of middle school girls who had used a different item to bring the product to life, and Boy, oh Boy, did they! Before we knew it, the girls had created a keyboard and everyone received the opportunity to explore—even one of the grandparents who had arrived for pick-up! The girls in another classroom even wanted to stay after the session ended in order to continue exploring and experimenting with natural conductivity!
The 100 Girls of Code program is extremely thankful that the folks at Eduporium realize the importance of experiential education and provided the girls who attended the HTML workshop with the opportunity to be introduced to such an amazing product! We highly recommend it for STEM education and conductivity units in particular, because it truly gives students a chance to expand their imagination and create various ways to use technology!
Danithea Ward is the leader of the Conyers, GA chapter of 100 Girls of Code. Among other things, she is determined to steer young girls toward pursuing STEAM and is an advocate of hands-on education. We were more than happy to help her and the 100 Girls of Code hold an exciting and innovative learning workshop using the Makey Makey.