Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Make with Code: Prototype for 2018 Fine Arts Festival


MIT's Robot Garden
I was inspired by Lucie deLaBruere's flower garden as part of her work with EMMA. Each spring Mt. Abraham Union Middle/High School celebrates the arts with a week long festival displaying work from every student in the district. After viewing Lucie's flowers I was eager to make an interactive garden based on the work of Claude Monet, that would showcase the ingenuity of each of my middle school students.

This was my first summer participating in Create, Make, Learn.  Throughout the week long hands on workshops I learned more than I anticipated. I've always felt comfortable with hand tools, and in the wood shop, but had no experience with tech tools such a soldering, LEDs, or interactive tools like the Makey Makey.  

Lucie provided me with various resources and supplies and my time at Create, Make, Learn gave me the support structure and confidence to undertake the process of making my prototype for my students.


My first step was to create a battery connection and switch for my green LED light.  With support from Craig Lyndes I was able to solder my switch to male/female connections, linking my battery with my green LED light.

Then I created my flower using green fabric from the craft store, some floral tape, and an old plastic tube my son had laying around.  I was able to assemble everything so that my LED illuminated my emerald flower using my on/off switch.




I then used the Makey Makey to add sound to my flower by setting up a simple circuit.  As long as I held the ground and touch the flowers the piano sound played.  I found this resource from the Makey Makey website very helpful.


This is the piano resource that I used to help add sound to my flower.
After some trouble working out the connections, fabric is not a great insulator I learned. I finally completed my prototype.  I can't wait to show this to my students and know that they will be able to take my concept much further.  I feel the together we will learn so much about melding art and technology and am so excited for the final results to be unveiled next spring!

   


4 comments:

  1. Your flower came out amazing! I cannot wait to see how your students 'grow' your garden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Shannon! I am so excited for the school year to start so that I can introduce the idea to my students!

      Delete
  2. Leah, would you be interested in collaborating on creating a local installation - our own version of the interactive coding garden? Did you know that the Makey makey can also do some limited light control.

    Lucie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lucie, I would LOVE to collaborate with you! A local instillation sounds amazing! Lets talk more soon, that would be so much fun. I had no idea that the Makey Makey could also do light control, I'd love to learn how to do that as well. I ordered some TinyLilys to add a light component to my student's flowers.

      Delete