Hack a Toy
30-60 min
Ages 8+
What Will You Make?
Create a momentary fabric switch. Code your toy with Scratch. Create kid-friendly alligator clips with clothespins for smaller hands.
Note: This is a project for students who’ve finished the Beginner Level Makey Makey class or makers who already have basic knowledge about Makey Makey.
You may want to try these projects first:
- Create a Controller to Plug and Play!
- Fruit Piano
- Draw a Playable Instrument
- Makey Makey Interactive Poster
- Creating a Guitar in Scratch
This project also uses elements from:
What Will You Learn?
In the previous project, you learned how to make switches out of everyday stuff. What if you used these simple switch ideas and simple sewing materials to hack a toy? You will use conductive fabric material for your invention instead of office supplies. To create an interactive toy, you will make two conductive spots on your toy that will complete a circuit when the two spots are pressed together.
Big Ideas for this lesson:
Create a momentary fabric switch
Code your toy with Scratch
Create kid-friendly alligator clips with clothespins for smaller hands!
Create different spots on your toy for your little sister/brother to test with their clothespin clips.
We are experimenting with different materials for different inventions to help you start experimenting with your own ideas for creating switches.
We want the projects to be a little more open-ended. You can create your toy hack like ours, or you can make different design choices.
Sewing a Momentary Switch with Conductive Thread
Step 1
Place a small piece of conductive fabric tape on each hand of your stuffed toy.
Step 2
Then thread a needle with about 24” conductive thread. Tie a knot at the end of the thread.
Use the needle to poke from the back of the stuffed toy’s hand, up to the conductive fabric patch. Make sure the thread comes up and over so that is makes a connection on the top of the fabric tape.
Step 3
Bring the needle back to the backside of the stuffie’s hand, make one more stitch on the back of the toy, and tie a knot. (I like to come back through the thread and pull my needle through this loop to make a knot. )
Step 4
You should have a spot now to clip your alligator clip to on the back of your toy’s hand. Clip one alligator clip to each hand.
Step 5
On your Makey Makey, plug one alligator clip to “SPACE” and the other to an EARTH connection on the bottom row.
Step 6
Now when your toy’s hands touch, it will make a connection just like your simple foil switch. Cool momentary switch, eh?
Alternative: No- Sew Method with Hook Up Wire
Step 1
Maybe you don’t have access to conductive thread? This step will show you how to use everyday office supplies and the materials in your Makey Makey kit to hack a toy.
The small white wires in your kit are called hook-up wire. These tiny wires are commonly used in electronics and cut to length, then soldered to hold projects in place and ensure conductivity. These wires fit in the back of the board (we’ll have a class on that soon!) but you can use them in any project.
If you don’t have conductive thread, you can use a hook up wire and poke it through your toy, just like you would use a thread and needle.
Step 2
Using needle nose pliers, wrap the exposed end of the wire onto the end of a safety pin. The exposed end needs to be attached well to the safety pin so we can extend the conductive area from the wire to the safety pin (you could also use a binder clip instead of a safety pin.)
Step 3
Cover the wire on the back of your toy with some low adhesive masking tape to keep it in place.
Step 4
Now clip an alligator clip to the exposed end of the hook up wire.
Step 5
Cover the alligator clip as well so it doesn’t come loose.
Step 6
Repeat in another spot on your toy, and now when those two conductive spots come together, you will complete the circuit.
Code in Scratch
Step 1
You can use your coding skills from the class “Code Your Key Presses in Scratch” to record and code sound effects, code your toy to be a musical instrument, or code your toy to be a game controller! This step is up to you to design and decide!
Step 2
See our game example here – it inspired us to go further and make a body systems toy. Further instructions are in the next step!
Kid- Friendly Alligator Clips with a Clothespin
Step 1
Sometimes those alligator clips are really difficult to pinch open and closed. Let’s make a kid friendly version with a clothespin, so your little brother or sister can easily clip to different conductive spots on your toy. (This clips will function as EARTH so you can have multiple key presses on your toy. )
Step 2
First take the clothespin apart. Just wiggle off the metal spring.
Step 3
Next cut two strips of foil to fit on the clothespin. Then use a glue-stick to adhere to the surface of each clothespin piece. You need one foil to wrap the entire length of the clothespin and the other side can just cover the front of the clip.
Step 4
Put your clothespin back together and attach an alligator clip to the end where the foil wraps around the end.
Step 5
Now you are ready to test on your toy. You can create multiple conductive spots, then in Scratch, you can code the descriptions of your toy’s anatomy or body system. Your toy may have multiple hearts, or three stomachs (like a cow!) or maybe your toy is an animal and you can actually code the real descriptions of the animal’s body system.
Step 6
Try our Scratch game here, by pressing the up arrow, left arrow, or spacebar to learn about our monster’s weird and wacky body system!
What Is Happening Here?
Conductive Sewing Supplies
We are experimenting with different materials for different inventions to help you start experimenting with your own ideas for creating switches.
In the same way you can make two pieces of foil touch, you can invent all kinds of actions that will close a switch to send a signal with Makey Makey.
There are some common materials when creating sewable electronics. Did you know that you can get thread that is conductive? Conductive thread is made with stainless steel fibers and can be used in place of alligator clips for sewing wearable electronic projects.
The other notions (that’s a sewing term to describe small sewing objects or accessories) you can use are quite common. We’ve had success with metal clasps and sewable metal snaps for our own Makey Makey invention hacks.
Design Considerations
You have three big decisions to make. First decide how you want to make your toy interactive and next decide what you want your toy to do. How will you actuate the switch? (Actuate means the physical movement that controls your switch.) Do you want a momentary switch or a maintained switch? (Remember these are the switch ideas from our last maker class.)
Do you want to shake your toy’s hand to make a light come on?
Do you want to hold your toy’s hands to make it talk?
Do you want your guitar toy to become a drum?
Do you want a snap to make the switch maintained?
You will use conductive fabric material in place of foil make a switch. To create an interactive toy, you will make two conductive spots on your toy that will complete a circuit when pressed together (or actuated).
If you don’t have conductive fabric or thread, you can still use foil, sewable metal snaps, or even clamp binder clips on your toy. If you don’t want to use conductive thread, skip down to the alternative “no sew” step.
Using a different material to make this switch helps you get started with experimenting with everyday materials to create your own switches and components. You can follow our toy hack, or hack a toy in your own way!
What Is Next?
Extensions
Here are some cool projects by others that use a similar method for teaching human anatomy:
Patrick Benfield’s students drew human body systems and coded them!
Here’s a wearable body system coat by Colleen Graves (the creator and teacher of this project!)
Once that you’ve created a body systems toy, what else can you make? What if you went one step further and found an old electronics toy to deconstruct or take apart? Just make sure you take out the battery before attempting this Deconstructing Toys Guide!
Makey Makey Classic Inventor's Kit
The original Makey Makey Classic – Named one of Consumer Reports’ “Best Tech Toys of 2014,” “Best of Toy Fair 2014” by Popular Science, and a finalist for Toy of the Year 2016.
Makes STEM Education fun! Start out easy with a banana piano. First setup takes seconds. Then make game controllers, musical instruments, and countless inventions. Advance to additional inputs and multi-key remapping up to 18 keys. Ages 8 to infinity.
Turn everyday objects like bananas into touchpads!
Connect the world around you to your computer! Setup takes just seconds.
Just plug, clip, and play! No programing knowledge needed. No software to install. Works with Mac and Windows.
1000s of possibilities! Draw your own game controller, sneak a cat selfie, and dance like never before.
Ages 8 to infinity.
Visit the Makey Makey website for tons of projects, educator resources, apps and more.
Materials:
- An old toy
- Conductive fabric tape
- Conductive thread
- Two alligator clips
- Makey Makey
- Sewable Conductive Notions (Optional)
Maker Camp Project Standards
Based on NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)
National Core Arts Standards
The National Core Arts Standards are a process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students in Pre-K through high school. These standards provide goals for Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts with cross-cutting anchors in Creating, Performing, Responding, and Connecting through art. The Anchor Standards include:- Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
- Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
- Refine and complete artistic work.
- Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
- Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
- Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
- Perceive and analyze artistic work.
- Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
- Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
- Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
- Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards. Learn more.Forces and Motion
- 3-PS2-3. Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.
- HS-PS4-5. Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.
National Core Arts Standards
The National Core Arts Standards are a process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students in Pre-K through high school. Also see Standards with cross-cutting anchors in Creating, Performing, Responding, and Connecting through art for Visual Arts.K–12 Computer Science Framework
The K–12 Computer Science Framework is designed to guide computer science from a subject for the fortunate few to an opportunity for all. The guiding practices include:- Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture
- Collaborating Around Computing
- Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems
- Developing and Using Abstractions
- Creating Computational Artifacts
- Testing and Refining Computational Artifacts
- Communicating About Computing
K–12 Computer Science Framework
The K–12 Computer Science Framework is designed to guide computer science from a subject for the fortunate few to an opportunity for all. The guiding practices include:- Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture
- Collaborating Around Computing
- Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems
- Developing and Using Abstractions
- Creating Computational Artifacts
- Testing and Refining Computational Artifacts
- Communicating About Computing
ISTE Standards (International Society for Technology in Education)
The ISTE Standards provide the competencies for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age, providing a comprehensive roadmap for the effective use of technology in schools worldwide.1.1 Empowered Learner
- Summary: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
- 1.1.a Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
- 1.1.b Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.
- 1.1.c Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
- 1.1.d Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.
1.2 Digital Citizen
- Summary: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.
- 1.2.a Students cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world.
- 1.2.b Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.
- 1.2.c Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.
- 1.2.d Students manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and are aware of data-collection technology used to track their navigation online.
1.3 Knowledge Constructor
- Summary: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
- 1.3.a Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
- 1.3.b Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.
- 1.3.c Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
- 1.3.d Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.
1.4 Innovative Designer
- Summary: Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
- 1.4.a Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.
- 1.4.b Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.
- 1.4.c Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.
- 1.4.d Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.
1.5 Computational Thinker
- Summary: Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.
- 1.5.a Students formulate problem definitions suited for technology-assisted methods such as data analysis, abstract models and algorithmic thinking in exploring and finding solutions.
- 1.5.b Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.
- 1.5.c Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.
- 1.5.d Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.
NGSS MS.Engineering Design
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards.- MS-ETS1-1. Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
- MS-ETS1-2. Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- MS-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
- MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
NGSS HS.Engineering Design
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards.- HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
- HS-ETS1-2. Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
- HS-ETS1-3. Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
- HS-ETS1-4. Use a computer simulation to model the impact of proposed solutions to a complex real-world problem with numerous criteria and constraints on interactions within and between systems relevant to the problem.
NGSS 3-5.Engineering Design
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards.- 3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
- 3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- 3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
