Who knew that a couple of bricks could build something wonderful? LEGO, of course! These colorful building blocks encourage kids to make amazing creations out of nothing, and now, teachers and adults can use them for fun lesson plans.
The LEGO Learning System is a lesson system created by LEGO Education to help kids naturally progress through different kinds of learning. The newest addition to the collection is Spike Essentials and it is filled with 40 STEAM activities! Paired with the LEGO Education SPIKE app, students in grades 1-5 can follow along with the five units that have corresponding lesson plans to slowly increase their STEAM skills.
Using more than 400 LEGO bricks, kids are introduced to Maria, Sophie, Leo, and Daniel. First, kids will face the beginner’s challenge to join the four mini-figures on an outdoor adventure. It’s their job to make the characters’ outing fun! The online app is stocked with instructions to help kids every step of the way. This lesson introduces kids to sequencing — the process of creating a code to help technology run correctly. The second unit takes the mini-figures to an amusement park. Kids will learn all about engineering and design skills as they build different attractions for the characters to ride. Is the ride not going fast enough? That’s fine! Young engineers are encouraged to refine their prototypes through trial and error.
The third lesson is more advanced. Maria, Sophie, Leo, and Daniel are traveling to a new town and they need vehicles to traverse through the new environments. As kids make moveable cars, boats, and helicopters, they’ll learn how to describe why they made their design and coding choices that best fit the solution. The fourth lesson takes the characters to a carnival filled with games, and kids will have a blast as they test out concepts like energy, energy transfer, and collision. Students and young learners are encouraged to communicate with others to improve their builds and codes. After all, more heads are better than one!
The final lesson takes everything the students have learned to help Maria, Sophie, Leo, and Daniel solve their big school problems. Kids can program a hand that waves “good morning” to the characters as they walk to school, create a high-tech playground for them to enjoy, and a goal-catching machine to help them play soccer.
LEGO is also making the clean-up process easier. The Spike Essentials box is color-coded, so kids can easily store and sort blocks of the same color in the correct container. If teachers or parents are eager to begin this block-based STEAM journey, Spike Essentials is available for pre-order now and will begin to ship on Sept. 7. Each box, priced at $274.95, is designed for two students to share and collaborate. The kits include 449 LEGO bricks (including replacement elements), a storage box with color-coded sorting trays, five hardware components, and five curriculum units with 7-8 lessons. Each unit contains 6-10 hours of educational content and more than 30 minutes of language arts and math extensions for each lesson. Adults can discover more about the Spike Essentials learning process on the LEGO Education website.
