With this program, the Center for Engineering Outreach (CEEO) aims to address what it sees as a significant labor shortage in the United States—high school graduates who are interested in technological careers. The school feels that the lack of engineers could affect the U.S. competitive edge in the future. CEEO hopes that the introduction to engineering in elementary school could encourage many capable students to consider engineering as a career.
The first priority of CEEO is teacher education. To accomplish this task, CEEO offers weeklong summer workshops. I attended one on using the Lego kits in July. My time was spent doing the activities that my students would be doing—what I called "organized fun." The word Lego, in fact, comes from the Danish expression leg godt, meaning to play well.
We were given a Lego kit called Mindstorms Education which had pieces in it of things that appear in the real world—such as tires, beams, bricks, and plates. No tools were necessary to build with these pieces. We were also given teacher guides and worksheets, which we can use in the classroom. When school starts again in the fall, classes will get enough of these same Lego kits to enable students to work in groups of two. The subjects
I will be teaching in fourth grade are simple machines and animals. Other grades have a different curriculum.
A Day in Class
My task was to design a fictional animal with a protective covering that could move, balance itself, and pick up food. Furthermore, this fictional animal had to be capable of living in the rain forest. My design wasn’t very elaborate but it met all the criteria. Success!
The next task was to use a PC and a Lego brick (which functions as the brain for the Lego program) to again create a fictional animal. I programmed my instructions using the PC, and my commands were transferred from the computer to the brick or “brain” through a USB cable connection. The software is a pictorial, simplified version of applications that are used to program and control the Mars Rover.New Approach
I discovered that there are many advantages to using the Lego kits in the classroom. Knowledge and technology are changing rapidly. As Alvin Toffler, the author of “Future Shock” said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." As a teacher, it is my primary job to prepare my students to be lifelong learners.
To be successful in tomorrow's world, students need an innovative approach to learning. With the Lego kits, they work in partnerships and in a noncompetitive way to master complex material that goes way beyond the grade level standards. They must use logic to get results. At the end of the process, students have a finished product that they are proud of and new knowledge to apply to other open-ended challenges.
The Lego kits also give students an appreciation and understanding of machines, which enriches their lives. With the Lego kits, they can build not only simple machines such as pulleys or levers but also more complex machines such as bridges, playground equipment, televisions, and computers to name just a few things. Many everyday objects are really combinations of simple machines.
With the Lego kits, the students develop an appreciation of nature. They can build habitats to make connections between an animal’s characteristics and the places where it lives. They study locomotion, or how animals move, and then make an animal of their choice move. They learn about special features of the seven major animal groups (fish, amphibians, crustaceans, mammals, reptiles, insects, and birds) and then make an animal from one or more of these groups. They may notice that today's technology often imitates nature.
Lego projects easily lend themselves to integration with other subjects. And no matter what subject is taught, students will be learning at their own rate. The focus is always on what students can do, not what they can't do.
Resources
On the Web site www.legoeducation.com/store/ parents, relatives, and guardians can find out about purchasing Lego materials. Amazon.com, as well as many department stores, offers many Lego products.
The Web site http://activities@legoengineering.com/ has activities for a child to do with Lego kits.For more information on the Center for Engineering Outreach at Tufts University, please visit http://www.ceeo.tufts.edu/
Linda Wiegenfeld is an educator in the Boston area.
