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.
Recently we received this story about the impact hands-on learning can have on students who face special challenges in life. Thank you Bettina Hopcroft for sharing your tale of success!
I work with a 7 year old girl in 2nd grade - she has CP and her right hand is not much functional. She is right handed, but has to use her left hand to do stuff. I gave her the LEGO Smart Kit and asked her to built me a biiggg tower. She did, it took her a while, but the PT and OT said -- this is great for her small motor skills -- I will be doing this 3 times a week with her!!! She always gives me a different tower!! Don't tell me she can't do it -- she sure can! - Bettina
My success story. I am 23 years old and currently the Director of IT for North Cross School in Roanoke, Virginia. I received your LEGO Club Jr. Magazine and corresponding Teacher's Guide in the mail today and it reminded me of how everything got started.
I was in 5th grade and my teacher had ordered a kit for the classroom. She deemed it a special product and only kids that could stay after school could work on it. Everyone that could stay would put their name into a hat and 3 people would be chosen. I was one of the lucky ones.
We got to build and program a LEGO elevator/crane. It was amazing. We got to see what happened when the programming was correct and when we messed up. It kept us occupied for weeks; finally we got to demo it to the class. Everyone was so impressed.
In high school I started taking programming and networking classes. Finally, I ended up at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and graduated in 2007 with a BS in Business Administration, with a concentration in IT.
Throughout my college years I had worked as an assistant systems administrator for NCS, after graduation I went to work full time as an IT Analyst for Roanoke City Schools and a year later I was looking at a Directors position at NCS.
I give that little LEGO set the credit for getting me interested in computers and programming and to this day have LEGO Education to thank for getting me started and achieving my goal of being the Director of IT for a company.
So to you, I tip my hat and with a warm heart say, “Thank You”.
Zack DeMoss