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Scratch Dance Pad

My 4th and 5th grade STEM class students created an interactive light and sound dance machine. Using a Picoboard, a sensor board, the students designed and created mat switches to interact with a dance program they coded on Scratch. Two pieces of structure materials, such as cardboard, were lined with foil on one side of each panel. Students determined that the two pieces had to be separated slightly with the foil-lined sides facing each other. They used tissue, foam cutouts, paper, and other insulators to separate the two halves of their mat switches.


While some student groups began mapping out their dance pad layout, others finished making their various mat switch designs. Speaker wire was used to connect the electrical current to each dance pad or switch. The wire then connected to the alligator clips on the Picoboard. The Picoboard connected to a computer that projected its screen on an interactive white board.


Students created and executed their own computer programs using Scratch. When a student stepped on a mat switch, the circuit closed and ran a code in their program to show different colors and play different sounds on the interactive white board. Each mat switch activated a unique combination of color and sound, depending on the group’s Scratch program.


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