Professor Uses LEGO bricks to Teach Science

The CBS affiliate station in Montana recently covered how a professor turned down “big city” job offers after she received her Ph.D. in Physics from Norte Dame to pursue her passion for teaching children using LEGO bricks. Dr. Stephanie Morrison teaches at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program at the Friendship House in Billings, Montana, an area with three times the poverty rate as the rest of the city. You can read the transcript here.

Growing Trend: First-Time Teacher Encourages LEGO Play

Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently published a story on a first-time teacher who left a career in television and radio journalism to fulfill her passion for teaching children. According to the article, Jackie Flaherty is part of a growing trend of professionals entering the teaching profession as a second or third career. And wouldn’t you know? Ms. Flaherty encourages her students to build with LEGO bricks to stimulate their creativity. Read all about it here

Heart-Felt Story

Here’s a heart-felt story. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently published a story on Bennett Shakoske, a senior driven to beat the odds and finish high school. He had difficulty reading in the first grade and considering “giving up” until he repeated first grade with a teacher who used his love of LEGO building to instill self-confidence. According to the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University, a child who is four or five months behind a the end of the first grade has only one chance in five or six of reading at grade level in a traditional school environment. However, in Bennett’s case, just one teacher’s encouragement can impact a student’s path to success. What a cool way to spark confidence.
You can read all about Bennett here

LEGO Building Inspires Teachers

Creative LEGO play came to life this week at the Vandenberg Middle School library where faculty members participating in a brainstorm were asked to represent a more student-centered culture through LEGO bricks. Teachers used LEGO bricks to create individual representations of their ideal classrooms and their classroom community goals.

The assignment gave teachers a chance to express their creative ideas. One teacher created a “learning community” complete with ladders, a tree and a spider. He explained, “The tree is organic and growing, the way the brain works. The spider represents the gross stuff in history.”

You can read all about it here

Incorporating LEGO in the Classroom

This is for all you teachers out there who want to incorporate LEGO building into their curriculum but need a place to start. Four teachers from Ohio University’s College of Education created and posted their lesson plan ideas on this site. One teacher’s lesson plan includes instructions on building greenhouse models out of LEGO bricks and an accompanying discussion on greenhouse solar energy. The goal is for the students to control the temperature inside the greenhouse using gears and sensors so a variety of plants can flourish. What a cool way to bring an environmental lesson to life for your students!

MSU Conference Trains Teachers to Teach with LEGOs

MSU's College of Engineering recent conference trained K-12 teachers on bringing life to the run-of-the-mill math or science lesson. The Summer Magnet and Related Training Institute showcased innovative techniques teachers can integrate into their curriculum, including building robotic fish or car from LEGO Mindstorms.

Robots to the Rescue

Kids at a Georgetown College summer camp are learning to save the world, one robotic command at a time. The campers learn how robots aid humans in bomb disposal, manufacturing, surgery and household chores. The lucky campers camp use LEGO Mindstorms to build high-performance products and “teach” robots to move magnets, avoid soling cloth and complete other projects under 2 ½ minutes. Read all about it here.

IBM Builds Confidence in Young Women

I love to see programs that inspire children to expand their career choices. At IBM’s EXITE Camp, girls learn about game systems, environmental issues and computer programming though hands-on activities. The inspiration doesn’t stop the last day of camp. Campers are paired up with a female IBM mentor, and they communicate through email and in-person meetings throughout the school year. One of the mentors mentioned, “When they walk out Friday, they have a whole new light bulb in their heads.” What a great way to build confidence in 11 and 12-year-old students.

You can check out the article here.

Hellooooo Summer School Teachers!

..and moms and dads too…. Parent’s Magazine’s Blog (Goodyblog) just posted on LEGO Creativity Awards. What better way to enhance your kids creativity during the dog days of summer?? Kids have until September 17th to apply online and have a chance to win $5,000. It’s a great summer afternoon filler and a $5,000 is enough to get my creative juices flowing! Where’s my contest? Check out the Goodyblog post here.

I Wanna be a TechnoKid

Yes I do. I admit it. TechnoKids is a new summer program at Stark State College of Technology where students learn the fundamentals of engineering in a class called LEGO Engineering. What’s cool about this class is it gives kids a tangible model to work with when solving abstract problems. It’s true. Kids absorb information a lot faster and retain the information longer when they’re involved with the process and can visualize the solution. What a great way of approaching a question like, “This axle is spinning how many times faster than this one?”
You can read all about it here.

The power of the minifigure... through sign language

Minifigures may be silent, but their stories speak out to American Sign Language (ASL) students….

American Sign Language (ASL) Professor Carl Schroeder of Haiku, Hawaii uses LEGO storytelling to inspire students to develop their ASL skills. “I believe rather firmly that learning ASL through LEGO stories empowers students to replace the unrealistic folk tales with simple realistic stories taken from the world of reality and from nature.”