Interactive Poetry: Discovering Who We Are with Scratch and Makey Makey

[mozfest-bot]

[ UUID ] b159989a-8c48-42d6-84f3-73dcd02fa103

[ Session Name ] Interactive Poetry: Discovering Who We Are with Scratch and Makey Makey [ Primary Space ] Youth Zone [ Secondary Space ] Web Literacy

[ Submitter's Name ] Jaleesa Trapp [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] MIT Media Lab [ Submitter's GitHub ]

[ Other Facilitator 1's Name ] Saskia Leggett [ Other Facilitator 1's GitHub ] @sleggss

[ Other Facilitator 2's Name ] Christan Balch [ Other Facilitator 2's GitHub ] @christanbalch

[ Other Facilitator 3's Name ] Sarah Otts [ Other Facilitator 3's GitHub ] @seotts

What will happen in your session?

In this session, we will create interactive poetry about our identities using Scratch — an online platform and community where you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and the Makey Makey invention kit. We’ll start with a poem template called “Where I Am From,” then experiment with ways to make our words and images come to life. After sharing and reflecting, we'll brainstorm how to adapt this activity for youth in your own settings. (We recommend bringing a laptop to this session, if possible.)

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

We hope that attendees leave this session seeing coding as a creative material for self-expression, as a way to explore one's identity, and as a vehicle to cultivate community. The combination of Scratch and Makey Makey provides two pathways into learning (combining the digital and physical worlds); we also hope this workshop will help shape participants’ relationship to both modes of technology, where they feel more empowered to create, make, and share their work (and themselves) in digital and physical spaces.

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

A projector and screen would be great!

Time needed

90 mins

[chadsansing]

Seems like a great mash-up. Will there be opportunities for learning about how/what/when to share personal info on platforms like Scratch - especially through art, @sleggss?

[sleggss]

Yes! Is that something that we should / can explicitly add in the description? I think that would be an important piece to cover in our intro, and in practice when we share our projects together.

[chadsansing]

@sleggss, if you have a particular set of guidelines or a strategy for teaching that in mind, I think you can share it here in the comments -

[seotts]

It's very important to us to both help kids understand the importance of safety while also encouraging them to express themselves and talk about the things that matter in their lives. One approach we take is grounding everything in the Scratch Community Guidelines, including “Keep personal information private” and “Be respectful,” to help kids find the line between expressing themselves and sharing too much. For example, you shouldn’t share your home address, but it’s okay to talk about the cookies your grandma bakes!

[KylaWilliams]

Really love this!