On April 14th, 2019, I participated in a printmaking and e-textiles workshop at St. Edward's University.
Alex Morrison, the workshop lead, showed us how a Makey Makey Express and Scratch could be used to make sounds play on a computer when a picture created with conductive paint was touched. Our task was to pick someone we liked whose works involved STEM and to create a short podcast about that person using Scratch. I had trouble picking someone, so I picked my favorite band, Spitz. I knew that they weren't mathematicians, but music involved math, so I went with it.
Creating the Stamp
I drew the band's logo on carbon paper. I needed to make sure that I flipped the design. I then transferred the ink to a big eraser stamp. I used carving tools to carefully carve around the design. I wanted to make sure that I finished the podcast first, so I stopped carving before I got to finish.
Creating the Podcast
In order to create the podcast, I needed to find YouTube videos about the band, convert it to an mp3, and use it in Scratch. Because I chose a Japanese band, all of the videos were in Japanese. My Japanese skills were useful here because I had to do some translating. The code can be found here.
Makey Makey Express
I didn't get to this part, but other UTeach Makers did, so I will explain what they did. They used conductive paint to create a print using their stamps. Then, they used alligator clips to connect the paint to the Makey Makey Express that was plugged into the computer. They then touched the paint, which made the podcast play.