BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today LEGO® Education announces that schools around the world are taking advantage of hands-on LEGO learning solutions. Together with these schools, LEGO Education aims to engage every student’s natural curiosity, and helps them develop the skills and confidence they'll need in the future.
“We are thrilled to celebrate educators and education leaders who are leveraging LEGO Education’s hands-on learning solutions to advance the learning opportunities for their students,” said Silver McDonald, head of LEGO Education North America. “Whether through connecting learning to real-world opportunities or innovation centers, these educators and education leaders are finding creative ways to provide students with the tools they need to make learning inspiring, engaging and effective.”
Below are a few of the US schools, from early learning to high school, that are building their students’ STEM, coding and 21st century skills by using LEGO Education STEAM Park, LEGO Education WeDo 2.0, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 and LEGO Education Simple & Powered Machines. Discover these stories and many more innovative classrooms prioritizing hands-on learning at LEGOeducation.com/stories.
Barrington
220 School District Amps Up STEM Program (Barrington, IL)
Becky
Gill, Director of Elementary Education, and Becky McDowell, K-fifth
grade STEM teacher, sought to complement their core science curriculum
and considered two offerings with LEGO Education’s learning solutions
coming out as the winner. McDowell says, “LEGO Education provided the
flexibility to modify and add our own content to it. Because programs
and standards and other things change and if there’s not as much
flexibility, then over time it’s going to become outdated. We’re excited
to iterate and improve upon what we’re teaching each year.”
Montour
Elementary School Makerspace Inspires Student Makers
(Pittsburg, PA)
Montour Elementary School created a Brick
Makerspace powered by LEGO Education solutions. The use of LEGO bricks,
digital lessons and hands-on robotics fill the learner-centered space
giving students opportunities to design, make and think creatively with
standards-aligned lessons in science, technology, art, math, language
arts, architecture and engineering. “One skill that every kid needs more
of is working with their peers,” says Amanda McDermott, teacher at
Montour Elementary School. “It is more important for me for a student to
come into my room and know how to fail and persevere through a challenge
than for a student to come into my room and get something right the
first time.”
Primrose
Elementary Builds Early STEAM Skills (Burlington, MA)
Danielle
Nicholas has created different learning stations around her kindergarten
classroom designed to foster STEAM learning. With her guidance, her
students create rides for a theme park using LEGO Education STEAM Park.
“The children were excited to utilize other materials than just the
bricks that come with the set,” says Nicholas. The variety of gears,
tracks, pulleys and connecting elements that come with the STEAM Park
set allow her students to explore beginner concepts in STEAM.
Making
the Connection: Engaging Students with STEM in Title 1 Schools
(St Louis, MO)
In Laura Knapp’s K-fifth grade technology
class she has limited time and resources. By connecting her students’
projects with their interest areas and engaging them with LEGO learning
solutions including LEGO Education Build Me “Emotions,” LEGO Education
WeDo 2.0 and LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3, it allows them to move past
obstacles in their life as they enter class and ignite their excitement
for learning.
Innovation
Centers: Designing a Stimulating Learning Environment at McHenry School
District (Chicago, IL)
For Fred Laudadio,
Executive Director of Learning and Technology, and Kristin Thorsen,
Assistant Director of Technology, developing digital and information
literacy in students goes beyond the traditional classroom. They’re
interested in thinking outside the box to create Innovation Centers –
learning spaces that are engaging, collaborative and cross curricular.
One of the ways these innovation coaches creatively supplement the core
curriculum, while bridging the passion and love for literacy with that
of technology and the digital world, is by integrating LEGO Education’s
hands-on learning solutions with the broad suite of technology available
in the Innovation Centers. “LEGO Education has a huge focus on digital
literacy and information literacy,” Laudadio says, adding, “everything
that LEGO Education offers is complementary to the core curriculum.”
Connecting
Real-World Careers with Simple & Powered Machines at Pasco School
District (Pasco, WA)
In Maya Donnelly’s
classroom, K-sixth grade students explore the basics of computer
science. Her 45-minute robotics class allows for exploration in projects
that connect the real world to the classroom. From kindergarten to
second grade her students begin coding using LEGO Education WeDo 2.0
with simple computational reasoning programs where they develop their
foundational math skills. By the time they reach third grade, her
students explore logic blocks and loops in their programming. In sixth
grade, they begin experimenting with LEGO Education Simple & Powered
Machines and programming with LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3.
For more information on how to implement LEGO Education’s hands-on learning solutions in your school, visit LEGOeducation.com.
About LEGO Education
From preschool to middle school and
beyond, LEGO
Education provides hands-on, playful learning tools that engage
every student’s natural curiosity, and help them develop the skills and
confidence they’ll need in the future.
LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks and/or copyrights of the LEGO Group. ©2018 The LEGO Group. All rights reserved.
