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Activity (Hands-On)Grades 8 - 11

Build & Play Binary Digital Trumpets

A photograph shows a laptop connected by a USB cable to a MaKey MaKey that is wired to four colored pushbuttons. A finger presses one button. On the screen is the binary trumpet program.Wire your own binary digital trumpet!

Students wire up their own digital trumpets using a MaKey MaKey. They learn the basics of wiring a breadboard and use the digital trumpets to count in the binary number system. Teams are challenged to play songs using the binary system and their trumpets, and then present them in a class concert.

Engineers of all disciplines use computers to examine and make sense of data; computers employ the binary number system to efficiently exchange and process information. Electrical and computer engineers must understand the binary number system in order to design computers and other electronics. Electrical engineers also apply a thorough knowledge of circuits when designing new technologies. Before creating full-scale products, they use breadboards to wire prototypes that can be re-wired and altered as they test and improve the circuits. Like electrical engineers, students use breadboards to develop model circuits; then they use their digital trumpets to explore the binary number system.

After this activity, students should be able to:

  • Assemble circuit components on a breadboard.
  • Count in binary/base 2.
  • Explain that computers translate binary code into outputs such as sound.
  • Create music using different combinations of binary numbers.

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