Are you LEGO® Smart™? Are your students? Being LEGO Smart is more than building with LEGO® bricks. It’s having the ability to work in teams, solve problems, and create solutions. It means understanding key science, technology, engineering, and math concepts – not just on paper, but through demonstration. LEGO Smart students don’t just know it, they DO it. The sets, software, and curriculum designed by LEGO Education harness the power of the LEGO brick and combine to create learning opportunities for students that will help develop the skills needed for a lifetime of creating, solving, and contributing to a global society. Be LEGO Smart – be the future.
LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry By Rebecca Hite, Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools
In this activity each team of students (3-4) will receive a package of LEGO bricks and a base plate. Students will first discuss what they feel are the central features of a city. What details are unique to these urban places? They should create a list and a rough sketch of their urban landscape. Students will then construct their city model using the bricks in the LEGO Smart Kit. Once completed, they will present their model to the class. In their group presentations, students should justify their selections within their model in additions to challenges they experienced within the activity. After presentations, they will compare their models to existing models of US urban development to compare and contrast between the models. Students will debate if these models are adequate representations of reality.
Lesson Learned: Students will use inquiry to design a typical city landscape using LEGO bricks. They will work in teams using their prior knowledge to construct a typical American urban landscape prior to their unit on Urbanization and Cities. (AP Human Geography Curriculum.) Through this engaging methodology of modeling, students will derive the essential components of an urban/city landscape (Central Business District, Zoning, Symbolic features) and then compare them to determine how they reflect various city models of US cities (Concentric Zone Model, Multiple Nuclei model, and Sector Model).
LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry By Julie Wille, Aspen Elementary School
Give students ample time to free build a mythological creature. Students should be asked to use their imaginations to create a creature with various powers, depending on the LEGO bricks used and the attributes assigned. Creatures may be animal like or a mix of person and machine. Students will then be asked to write a description of the character. Teams of students will be formed and given the task of creating a game where the characters are integrated. Creating a game with other students.
Lesson Learned: Creative play Applied imagination Writing a character description
LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry By Lara Chartier, Homeschool
Use any 10 LEGO bricks from the LEGO Smart Kit. Child A creates something on a paper plate. Passes it to child B to study for 1 minute. Child A is given back the plate and Child B is asked to turn around. While Child B is not looking, Child A will remove one brick from his creation. When complete, Child A will hand the plate back to Child B. Child B must figure out which block is missing.
Lesson Learned: Pattern recognition
LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry By James McWilliams, Osbourn Park High School
Create a person or animal using the LEGO Smart Kit. Measure each part with a digital or analog caliper. Model each part and assemble the character using Inventor software. Create a presentation showing proper alignment of parts. Create a video of the presentation.
Lesson Learned: To learn how to measure with a caliper. To create models using Inventor software.
LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry By Kelly Clark, Homeschool
After studying classification of vertebrates, use this activity for further understanding. Teacher should prepare a graph beforehand with columns labeled with classes of vertebrates. Give each student a LEGO Smart Kit. Ask each student to make an animal that would fit into one of the classes of vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians). As students show and tell what animal they made, they tell what class the animal fit into, and each student colors in a corresponding space on the graph to represent his animal. Discuss results.
Lesson Learned: Students learn creativity and expression through building, classification of vertebrates, and graphing.
LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry By Krisa Shook
All children will learn that their solutions will be different than their neighbor's -- but that is what makes each of them and their art unique.
For Older Children Introduction to Picasso: http://www.mykidsart.com.au/Pablo_Picasso_Famous_Artists_My_Kids_Art.html Discus that: In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes inter-penetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism's distinct characteristics. Cubism. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 6 May 2009, 18:55 UTC. 7 May 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cubism&oldid=288319735>. Challenge: Create a LEGO “picture” in the Cubism style (not a mosaic). Hint -- Basically, for this project they will break up their picture into geometric shapes that correspond to the LEGO bricks included in the kit. The picture can either be in their head or they may need to draw it first. Suggest that the colors do not have to be lifelike by discussing Picasso’s Blue and Rose periods. Suggestions: Face, Landscape, Ship on Water, Animals You may want to wait until after they are done the project before showing the pictures – unless they have no idea where to start. Discuss how each artist sees things differently, so more than likely, their project won’t look like their friend’s. After they understand this concept – look at everyone’s finished projects are some the same? If so why might that be? Same pieces, discussions prior to completing the work, worked in pairs… where they hampered or helped by the suggestions? Now discuss how during his cubist period Picasso worked side by side with his friend George Braque, both created work which was almost indistinguishable. “Cubism.” EyeconArt. 7 May 2009 <http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm> citation only, website not suitable for children.
Online Picasso project: http://www.colgate.com/app/Kids-World/US/Game_Picasso.cvsp Additional Picasso lessons using traditional art supplies: http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/Files/picasso.htm http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/03/tinted-and-shaded-self-portrait.html, http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/shaping-up-with-picasso-lesson-plan/, http://www.matisse-picasso.com/education/
For Younger Children Introduction to Piet Mondrian: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/artists/mondrian/ Background for teacher on Piet Mondrian: http://paintings.name/piet-mondrian-biography.php Challenge – make a piece of art in the style of Piet Mondrian who was inspired by Picasso’s cubism. Suggestions: Use as many or as few LEGO bricks to make a rectangle shaped artwork (one layer or two) Use all of the fat bricks (excluding the black slanted piece) to make a rectangle shaped piece of artwork Departure -- Use all the flat pieces to make a non symmetrical artwork
Online Mondrian project: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/cgi-bin/paint/nQ/artists/mondrian/coloring/matrix.shtml Online Mondrian resources suitable for class viewing: Piet Mondrian Animation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R085NSLcDrc Piet Mondrian - A Journey Through Modern Art http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fmiKOOvLUo Timeline of select pieces: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/mondrian/ Additional Mondrian Lessons using traditional art supplies: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/artists/mondrian/activity.shtml http://www.storyboardtoys.com/gallery/Piet-Mondrian.htm http://www.kinderart.com/painting/mondrian.shtml http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/modern-mondrian-lesson-plan/ http://www.kinderart.com/arthistory/abstract.shtml
Younger children: http://www.kinderart.com/painting/mondrian.shtml Older children: http://www.artsandactivities.com/Media/itwks75pdf/A100638.pdf
Lesson Learned: Older children will be introduced to Picasso and the art form of cubism. Younger children will be introduced to Piet Mondrian's art work which was inspired by Picasso's cubism.