Website: https://labz.makeymakey.com/
What does it help with? Providing inventors and educators access to guides and lesson plans and a community where they can share their own.
Is this core/supplemental/special needs/extracurricular/professional development or what?
It’s for whoever wants to use it! There are full on lesson plans for K-12 educators across all subjects, there are step-by-step guides for students of any age, and walkthroughs for casual inventors that just want to turn on their blender with a push of a button. . . made of mango.
What subject, topic, what standards is it mapped to?
Mapped to Common Core and NGSS, with state standards to be added in the future. Makey Makey Labz guides are cross-curricular, covering science, math, computer programming, ELA, engineering, social studies, art, and music.
What lesson time does it use? From 15 minutes to multi-day projects.
What is the pricing model? Free.
Are there services around it?
Makey Makey Labz offers guides created by Makey Makey and allows users to share their own guides and content relating to their own inventions, and provides educators with features to create classes, assign projects and monitor student progress.
What makes Makey Makey Labz unique?
Makey Makey Labz lets people document their inventions and make them shareable - allowing others to use their ideas and build on them to take that original idea to a whole nother place.
A description of the characteristics--how is it designed for user interface, user experience? What instructional design principles are at work here?
Makey Makey Labz is built for people to log-in and and get started right away. There are step-by-step guides right on the homepage and you don’t have to create an account to use them. If you do make an account, you can upload pictures and videos of your inventions and make your own guides. You can copy existing guides to make them your own. If you’re an educator you can add your whole class and assign projects to them and track their progress.
Teacher reviews:
“Makey Makey Labz has helped me promote a vibrant learning community in the classroom. It encouraged the students and I to develop innovative ideas and invent something from them. More importantly, it allows us to share our ideas and results with a supportive group that provides constructive feedback and assistance.”
Nick Popovich, Music Signature Specialist, Shea Middle School
“Makey Makey Labz has been a wonderful place to showcase the cool projects my students have created using their Makey Makeys as well as an inspiring place to see what other educators and people around the world are doing with their Makey Makeys. I can see Labz growing into a treasure trove of resources to help people who are in the exploratory phases get their feet wet as well as help the more experienced users up their game as they expand upon other users' ideas.”
Bethany Jones, 7th grade Engineering Design, Mason Middle School
“I have just begun using Makey Makey Labz. I'm very excited to see my students learn from others there, but more importantly, learn through creating tutorials of their own. This could become an incredible way for them to share their expertise with others all over the world! I hope other educators see the potential so the Labz community can grow!”
Jason Hubbard, STEM Educator, Perrysburg Schools
