Skip main navigation

New offer! Get 30% off one whole year of Unlimited learning. Subscribe for just £249.99 £174.99. New subscribers only. T&Cs apply

Find out more

Try a digital making project

Try your hand at some simple digital making projects with a cross-curricular focus to get ideas for your makerspace.
Table with digital making supplies

Now that you’ve learned about digital making, you’re ready to create! Below are four digital making projects. Select one that most interests you. Make sure to record your observations, and save your accomplishments so that you can share them at the end.

In this project, you will learn how to code your own musical instruments. By using Scratch, you can create a simple program to animate a band playing music on a stage. This is a great project for beginners who are new to coding or are more comfortable with block-based coding.

In this project, you will learn about the effects of gravity and how to simulate them in Scratch with code. It was developed as part of British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station to teach students about the force of gravity, combining computer programming and physics. Learn how gravity is calculated on different planets in our solar system while use basic programming constructs to create a simple program.

In this project, you will build a cardboard robot with a Raspberry Pi and a real flashing LED antenna, and use Scratch to create a digital robot twin that beeps. The project was developed to teach students how to design basic 2D and 3D assets; to use basic programming constructs to create simple programs; to use basic digital, analogue, and electromechanical components; and to use basic materials and tools to create project prototypes.

In this project, you will use a Raspberry Pi and the temperature and humidity sensors on a Sense HAT to predict when there’s a good chance of spotting a rainbow. When the right conditions are detected, you will display a rainbow on the Sense HAT’s LED matrix. The project was developed to teach students to measure environmental conditions using sensors and combine programming constructs to solve a problem.

Share your digital making project

What did you create? Use the comments section below to describe and share your accomplishment. You can link to your Scratch or Trinket project or upload an image or short video to our shared gallery.

  • What did you make?
  • What did you learn?
  • Did you enjoy the project?
© CC-NC-SA 4.0
This article is from the free online

Build a Makerspace for Young People

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now