Stay in touch with the world of LEGO® Education

If you don’t have time to keep abreast of the latest news from the world of LEGO® Education on a school day, never fear! Here’s a handy round-up of our pick of the posts to peruse over the weekend.

French engineer Max Castéra has been bringing fun and learning to some of the poorest children in India, with a little help from LEGO® bricks. Max, founder of brickscientist.com recently returned from Delhi where he spent a week teaching science, culture and engineering in conjunction with Tara, a non-profit organisation providing residential services and education for children from some of India’s most vulnerable families. You can read more about Max’s trip and the activities he organised here.

Make primary school maths fun with the latest LEGO® Challenge in Teach Primary magazine which builds children’s confidence using a hands-on method. The ideas focus on how LEGO bricks and LEGO DUPLO® bricks can be used to bring maths activities to life, teaching the specific skills of counting, shape recognition, matching, incidental multiplication and division. Read more about the challenge here.

A grammar school in Northern Ireland has been running special Robot Days for pupils using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education.The Wallace High School in Lisburn, has staged two events so far this year for Year 9 pupils and another is planned in June. Read about the activities and hear from the organising teacher here.

And it was also announced this week that the next generation of LEGO MINDSTORMS Education, the EV3 platform, will start shipping on August 1. Find out more here.

If you’ve always wanted to know what space, engineering and LEGO have in common, watch the Google Science Fair Hangout on Air with Adrian Drake, who devises experiments for the International Space Station using LEGO bricks. Find out more here.

And don’t forget there are lots of other bright ideas to help with that lesson planning on our website and blog. Here are just some of them.

Have a good weekend!

Make maths fun with the LEGO® Challenge

Here’s a new LEGO® Challenge from the latest issue of Teach Primary magazine which builds children’s confidence in maths using a hands-on method that they’ll love.

These activities challenge teachers to do more with the boxes of LEGO® bricks and LEGO DUPLO® bricks that are often to be found in classrooms.

The ideas focus on how these bricks can be used to bring maths activities to life, teaching the specific skills of counting, shape recognition, matching, incidental multiplication and division.

The activities are taken from ‘Back to Basics with Bricks’ written by LEGO Education partner, Hands On Tech.

The book contains 100 different activities across literacy, maths and PHSE. For more information or to buy the book, visit www.handsontech.co.za

This LEGO Challenge is just one of a series of challenges from LEGO® Education Academy Master Trainer Rob Widger. For the Gina the giraffe challenge, click here. For the stadium building challenge, click here. For the character building challenge, click here.

For more about Teach Primary, visit the website.

Happy building!

Character building with the LEGO® Challenge

Here’s a new LEGO® Challenge created by LEGO® Education Training Manager Rob Widger which you can find in the latest issue of Teach Primary magazine.

In this challenge, students undertake a series of building activities based on a fiction book they have just finished reading.

The children are asked to think about the main characters in the book and to build a model representing their thoughts which they then have to explain to the group. They also get the chance to consider what could have happened next in their book, and to build their ideas.

The challenge encourages lots of discussion and will take their understanding of character and plot to a new level.

To see the challenge in detail click on the image. For Rob Widger’s Gina the giraffe challenge, click here. For his stadium building challenge, click here.

For more about Teach Primary, visit the website.

Happy building!

Animal fun with the LEGO® Challenge

Could you create an animal pen made from LEGO bricks for Gina the giraffe so that she can take her medicine? That’s the latest challenge from LEGO® Education Training Manager Rob Widger in Teach Primary magazine.

This LEGO® Challenge invites children to work in a group to build a model out of LEGO® DUPLO® that will allow the vet to climb up and administer medicine to Gina who has a sore throat. The design has to be safe for the vet and Gina.

The children are encouraged to discuss their ideas before they start building. Then while they work, ask them if their design will be safe for the vet and the animal?

The challenge could be developed by setting up a shop in the class where pupils can ‘buy’ their bricks with play money, thus bringing an additional element of numeracy into the task.

When they have finished, the children can share their creations with the rest of the class, providing the opportunity for creative story telling and writing.

To see the challenge in detail click on the image. for Rob Widger’s Olympic Stadium LEGO Challenge, click here. For more about Teach Primary, visit the website.

Happy building!

New LEGO® set is “genius” says independent review

The first independent review of LEGO® Education’s new BuildToExpress set appears in the October edition of Teach Primary magazine. The review has been carried out by Jonathan Lear, a Deputy Head in Sheffield and former Teaching Award winner. Here’s what he has to say about this resource:

“This product is genius. Sometimes reviewing new stuff can be a bit dull, and the times when you see something genuinely different are few and far between. LEGO Education BuildToExpress, however, is unlike anything I’ve seen before, and should be bought by every school in the country. Immediately.

“Verdict: Builds Creativity. Beyond foundation stage, opportunities for our children to develop their natural creativity and curiosity are sadly outnumbered by more convergent learning experiences.

“BuildToExpress is a great way of shoe-horning this kind of learning back into our curriculum. The high value it places on children’s thoughts and ideas reminds me a little bit of Philosophy for Children, only with more plastic. Buy and enjoy.”

To read the full review online at Teach Primary please click on this link.

Each BuildToExpress set includes over 200 LEGO elements in a separate storage unit. They have been carefully selected to provide a broad spectrum of “ready-made metaphors”. The colorful bricks, accessories and minifigures inspire students and stimulate their creative thinking and imagination.

Win a BuildToExpress classroom set for your school!
If you would like to experience BuildToExpress at your school why not get involved in our competition? To find out more click here or to order your free competition pack click here.

The LEGO® Challenge: Can you build a stadium to budget?

Don’t miss the first LEGO® Education Challenge featured in this month’s Teach Primary magazine. It challenges primary school children to build a stadium using LEGO® bricks and finding the cheapest possible design.

The challenge is fantastic for helping students to develop their problem-solving skills as well as enhancing their maths and design ability. Pupils not only have to find the best and safest design for their stadium, but also have to consider the cost – as in real projects, every brick costs money!

There is even a free challenge card available on line. If you fancy having a go with your class, you can download the article from Teach Primary here.

Happy building and why not let us know how you get on?

Gain hands-on experience with LEGO® Education Academy

Discover how to deliver an engaging hands-on learning experience with LEGO® Education throughout your primary curriculum. We believe in a facilitation approach to teaching to allow students a more active role in their learning. Our Academy courses provide hands-on experience through practical workshops and offer ways to maximise the management of classroom resources.

LEGO® Education WeDo^TM
Subjects: Science, Maths, Technology, ICT, Literacy
In this course we will explore in detail LEGO Education WeDo. We will use the models as a basis for both verbal and written communication, production and dramatisation of stories, visual and sound effects, and look at how to use technology to create and disseminate ideas, including the use of sensors to control a model. Throughout, we will discuss the academic content and relevance in subject areas within primary schools.

BuildToExpress
Subjects: Language, Literacy, Humanities, PSHE, Maths
Build your way to better communication! Focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of the BuildToExpress concept. BuildToExpress is a genuinely creative teaching aid that enables all your students to communicate as equals, in an inclusive, non-judgemental and highly-motivational environment. Everyone gets involved and takes an active role in the learning process transforming you, the teacher, into a true hands-on facilitator. This course is designed to optimise your skills as a facilitator of the BuildToExpress process.

Click here or contact us on 0800 334 5346 for more information about LEGO Education Academy courses.

Simple Machines – Teach Primary review

Our new Simple Machines set was recently reviewed by Teach Primary. We don’t normally include too many posts of this nature but we really want to share this one with you as Teach Primary have tried and tested the resource in great detail.

Their overall verdict: “A well oiled machine -
Simple Machines will challenge, excite and stretch your pupils as they take a hands-on approach to learning about gears, levers, axles and pulleys. Having read the teacher’s guide, I felt as though I had a Masters in Construction Engineering and could have built the London Eye single-handed, such was the confidence it imparted.”

See the review in full here.

Community Starter Set – Teach Primary review

Our new Community Starter Set has been reviewed by Teach Primary. They were impressed with the size of the set and how it can be used to support story telling and promoting discussion in class.

Read the full review here.

Have you used the Community Starter Set in your classroom? How do you use this resource with your class?