Blast into space with Google Science Fair 2013!

Mechanical engineer Adrian Drake will be taking us into space with his Google Science Fair 2013 Hangout On Air today, Wednesday.

Google Science Fair 2013 calls on students to put their science and engineering projects online to compete for prizes, scholarships and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The Fair is being backed by The LEGO Group, along with CERN, National Geographic and Scientific American.

You can join Adrian live as he explains his passion for engineering, space – and LEGO®. He designs science experiments for the International Space Station and is also a huge LEGO fan and founder of www.Brickfrenzy.com, where he shares his LEGO creations.

In his talk Engineering, Space & LEGO! Adrian will be talking about some of the cool experiments he’s been involved in, what we’ve learned from doing experiments in space – and see some of the amazing LEGO creations he’s built.

You can join his Hangout On Air at 5pm today.

And remember, there’s just two weeks to go until the closing date for the Google Science Fair 2013, so it’s time for students to submit their projects.

Projects being entered in the 2013 competition need to be submitted by Tuesday, April 30, 2013. To find out more about submitting your project, visit the Google Science Fair website where you’ll discover lots of hints and tips to help you. You’ll also find inspirational stories about the winners of last year’s competition.

And to find out more about the LEGO Bricks in Space program created in collaboration with NASA, check out the LEGO Bricks in Space website.

Looking for lesson ideas? You’re in the right place!

If you’re searching for inspirational lesson plans for the Summer term then take a look at some of the great ideas from LEGO® Education that are guaranteed to grab the attention of students – from pre-schoolers to teenagers.

Get out your LEGO® DUPLO® bricks and try something new. We’ve put together four pages packed with ideas that can be downloaded for free. The pages show you how you can use your existing bricks and figures to help children develop skills in maths, language, personal, social and emotional development and self expression. Find out more here.

Take a fresh approach to literacy learning in primary school, and try one of the latest LEGO Challenges by LEGO Education Training Manager Rob Widger. In the Character Building Challenge, students undertake a series of building activities based on a fiction book they have just finished reading. You can find out more about the challenge here.

In the latest LEGO Bricks in Space lesson, students can investigate how a model airplane will react in microgravity and on Earth, with the help of  astronaut Suni Williams from Expedition 32 who carries out the experiment in Space and explains the importance of robotics on board the International Space Station. You can discover more about the LEGO Bricks In Space lessons here.

You could also download our free Maths lesson to teach children about Base 10, using the LEGO Education WeDo resources. Find out more here.

Try out our free Science lesson using LEGO MINDSTORMS® NXT data logging to investigate chemical reactions. In this activity, students in Years 7 to 11 predict how the temperature will change with various chemical reactions and test their predictions, as well as charting and comparing the changes and then publishing their results. Read more here.

And if you’re looking for some personal inspiration, you could drop in on the Learning Creative Learning course led by Mitch Resnick, director of the Lifelong Kindergarten and the LEGO Papert Professor at the MIT Media Lab. Don’t worry, you don’t need to sign up for the course (launched online by Media Lab and P2PU for the first time this year). Just listen to the sessions on YouTube and find out more here.

Remember, there are lots of other great ideas on our website and on our blog so why not explore? Have fun!

LEGO® Bricks in Space: Airplane Rescue

In the latest LEGO® Bricks in Space lesson, students will investigate how a model airplane will react in microgravity and on Earth.

They will create a programmable model airplane with a tilt sensor, to demonstrate their knowledge and operation of digital and technological systems.

In the accompanying video, astronaut Suni Williams from Expedition 32 demonstrates how the model reacts in microgravity, and explains the importance of robotics on board the International Space Station.

Students will then be asked to write a program using a different sensor in the airplane, and to think of other ways the tilt sensor could be used.

View the video above and download teacher notes, student worksheets and building instructions from LEGOspace.com

The collaboration between LEGO and NASA brings great excitement to children big and small, interested in aeronautics and space travel. Find out more at www.LEGOspace.com

Check out our bright ideas for Science Week !

National Science & Engineering Week starts this Friday (March 15) and if you’re looking for lesson ideas, we’re here to help!

Space always grabs the attention of young students, so why not watch real astronauts aboard the International Space Station doing experiments in micro-gravity using LEGO® bricks? There’s a whole series of lesson plans created by LEGO® Education in conjunction with NASA,  including Satellites, Pulleys, Windmill and Smart Spinner.

Older students will enjoy using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education to investigate topics such as Friction, Hazardous Environments, Plant Growth and Learned Responses, with our series of free lesson plans.

And don’t forget there is a host of other science lesson ideas and resources on our website for you to use, so take a look at them now.

You can find out more about National Science & Engineering Week organised by the British Science Association by visiting the website.

Let us know about your Science Week activities using LEGO Education resources. We’d love to hear from you!

Bright ideas for inspiring lessons

If you’re searching for captivating lessons this half term, why not take a look at LEGO® Education? We’ve got some cracking ideas to get you started. Here are just a few.

If you’re an Early Years teacher, then our Instant Success booklet is for you. It’s packed with ideas to help you grab the attention of your class and get the most from your LEGO® DUPLO® sets. Find out how to download the free booklet here.

Take on the LEGO® Challenge and ask your pupils to build a stadium using LEGO® bricks that not only looks good, but also doesn’t blow their budget! Find out more here.

Your class can team up with NASA scientists in space as they do experiments in microgravity using LEGO bricks. There’s a whole series of lessons to choose from. Take a look at the session on satellites here.

For an unusual take on self portraits, why not ask your class to draw themselves as a LEGO minifigure? That’s what students in the Sixth Grade (UK Year Seven) at Sandburg Middle School in the US did. The idea was the brainchild of art teacher Jennifer Leban. Find out more here.

Take a look at our activity card on Tower Cranes which will help your students investigate how cranes are built and how their function is influenced by changes to the pulley system. It’s one of many activity cards available on the LEGO Education website. You can find out more about the activity here.

Why not take a look at our series of free science lesson plans using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education? You can develop pupils’ understanding of how a plant tracks the sun’s movement across the sky using the lesson about plant growth. Download it here.

Claire Prud’homme, Director of Learning for Psychology at Smestow School in Wolverhampton, taught Ethics to her A-level students, using LEGO. She encouraged students to build their ideas of what it meant to be ethical and unethical using LEGO Education’s BuildToExpress sets. You can find out how they got on here.

Don’t forget that there are lots more ideas and free, downloadable resources on the LEGO Education website. Happy planning!

Planning headaches? We’re here to help!

If you’re knee-deep in planning this week, take a look at some of the great learning activities from LEGO® Education. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Why not encourage your primary class to take on the LEGO® Challenge by helping Gina the giraffe take her medicine? LEGO Education Master Trainer Rob Widger guides you through this fun lesson using LEGO® DUPLO® here.

If you’re looking for new ways to teach Religious Education, try out this bright idea from a Year 1 teacher in Cheshire. Sarah Thomas encouraged her class to build the Christian Creation Story out of LEGO bricks, with some great results! Find out more here.

You could encourage discussion of topical issues using this lesson plan devised by Vicky Churchill, a Year 4 teacher in Telford. She used BuildToExpress sets for the lesson. Find out more here.

And don’t forget the experiments being carried out by NASA astronauts in space using LEGO bricks in microgravity. There are lots of inspirational lessons to choose from; you can take a look at the Smart Spinner lesson plan here.

Why not try making a scissor lift with your class using LEGO Education’s Pneumatics Add-On Set for Simple Machines to  investigate weight, height and pressure? You can see the detailed activity card here.

If you’re using LEGO MINDSTORMS Education with your class then our series of free science lesson plans are tailor-made for you. The series investigates topics such as friction, hazardous environments, responses and behaviour. Take a look at the lesson all about speed here.

And if you want to know more about the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 platform that has just been launched, you can hear and see the experts talking all about it here.

And don’t forget that all you need is a box of bricks to grab the attention of your students. Ask them to take the Quick 20 Brick Challenge and watch them all get involved, whatever their age! You can find out more here.

There are lots more free downloads and resources on our website, so why not check them out now? Happy planning!

Pick of the posts 2012

From the turtle with a LEGO® leg to LEGO bricks in space, we’ve really enjoyed bringing you the latest from LEGO Education this year. As we reach the end of 2012, here’s our round-up of some of the most popular stories we’ve featured over the last 12 months. Don’t forget to visit us in 2013 to keep up to date with all the latest news and views from LEGO Education UK!

In January we brought you the results of the FIRST® LEGO® League tournament final, held at Loughborough University. This year’s Senior Solutions Challenge is well underway and we’ll be bringing you all the action from the final at Loughborough in January 2013! Read more about the 2012 final here.

We’ve been teaming up with NASA and the crew of the International Space Station who have been investigating LEGO bricks in space! In February the crew conducted experiments in microgravity with a trundlewheel. Find out what happened here.

In March we told you how we were partnering with Google for the Google Science Fair 2012. Scientists at Cambridge University explained how they are using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® in experiments to grow artificial bone. Find out more here.

We met the LEGO MINDSTORMS robot that could learn to play rock, paper, scissors in April. Read more about the amazing creation here.

We brought you a series of free Play to Learn activity cards this year and in May we focused on using LEGO® DUPLO® in the classroom to teach communication, language and literacy. You can download this and other cards in the series here. 

In June we discovered that 40-year-old Eastern box turtle Beamer is still going strong – 15 years after being given a prosthetic leg made from LEGO! Read the whole story here.

We brought you a free booklet aimed at helping you get the most out of your LEGO DUPLO resources in July. You can still download the guide here.

You and your class were invited to take on the Quick 20 Brick Challenge in August; challenging every child to pick 20 LEGO bricks to create as many builds as possible. The activity inspires creativity and communication, as well as being lots of fun! You can take on the challenge here.

Youngsters at a middle school in the US used LEGO Minifigures to inspire their self portraits in September. See their great work here.

Our free Science Lesson Plan series has proved very popular and in October we published the Learned Responses lesson plan for use with LEGO MINDSTORMS Education. You can still download this and others in the series, by clicking here.

LEGO Education BuildToExpress was launched this year and teachers have been sharing their inspiring ideas for using this new resource. In November one teacher told us how she is using it to teach A-level psychology and ethics. Find out more here.

In December LEGO Education President Jacob Kragh explained how it was vital to work in partnerships if we are to deliver the quality of education needed in the 21st century. Read more of his thoughts after attending WISE 2012, here.

We haven’t got space to mention all the other stories we’ve featured this year, but you can search our archive any time you need inspiration or information!

LEGO® in space: Smart Spinner

Join the team on board the International Space Station (ISS) as they investigate how a LEGO® Smart Spinner works in microgravity!

In this free downloadable lesson plan produced in partnership with NASA, students will conduct experiments observing how the Smart Spinner – made using the LEGO® Education WeDo™ Robotics Construction Set – functions on earth, and record their findings.

Students will then watch as crew on board the ISS complete identical experiments; noting the differences in behaviour on earth versus in microgravity.

After watching the video, students are invited to draw connections between the experiments and decide which environment provided better results.

Topics covered include gearing, forces, friction, speed, and rotation.

View the video below and download teacher notes and building instructions from LEGOspace.com

The collaboration between LEGO and NASA brings great excitement to children big and small, interested in aeronautics and space travel.

Find out more at www.LEGOspace.com

LEGO® bricks in space: Windmill activity

Investigate the effectiveness of windmill design and the effect that microgravity has on this with the Windmill Activity. In this activity, your learners and the crew on board the International Space Station (ISS) will work as a team to test their windmills, determining speed and comparing results in microgravity to those recorded in the classroom to help prove their hypothesis.

Students are then challenged to think of modifications to their windmill design that would allow the model to function as good, if not better, in microgravity as it does on Earth.

Some of the topics covered in this activity include: gearing down, gearing up, ratchets, forces and motion, weight, force, time, and energy. View the video below and download teacher notes, student worksheets and building instructions from LEGOspace.com

The collaboration between LEGO and NASA brings great excitement to children big and small, interested in Aeronautics and Space travel. Find out more at www.LEGOspace.com

LEGO® bricks in space: Pulleys

Investigate the Effect of Microgravity on Pulleys with the Fishing Rod Activity. In this activity, your learners and the crew on board the International Space Station (ISS) will work as a team to build the LEGO® Fishing Rod Model, perform a variety of experiments and compare results to test their hypothesis.

Some of the topics covered in this activity include: investigating pulleys, forces and motion, and measuring distance. View the video below and download teacher notes, student worksheets and building instructions from LEGOspace.com

The collaboration between LEGO and NASA brings great excitement to children big and small, interested in Aeronautics and Space travel. Find out more at www.LEGOspace.com