STEM education has come to the forefront in recent years and as the modern world rapidly grows more technologically advanced, the importance of teaching STEM skills to the next generation couldn’t be more evident. In this article, we outline five interesting STEM projects you can do with LEGO Education to take your lessons to the next level.
Unfortunately, many STEM subjects are far from riveting, which can make it difficult to drum up enthusiasm for learning, especially from young children. To increase the chance of students participating in STEM classes and taking a positive attitude towards them, they need lessons that are fun, interesting and engaging.
Let’s explore together these exciting STEM projects that children can do using LEGO Education products.
1. LEGO Education SPIKE Prime: Brain Game
Challenge your class to test their memory and identify patterns with the Brain Game. Using the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime set, your pupils will explore several methods for storing values in an array before using the data for a distinct purpose. This project will help your pupils develop their programming skills and it can be adjusted to incorporate maths and language arts skills too.
To complete this project, you’ll need:
- LEGO Education SPIKE Prime sets (one kit for every two pupils)
- The two building plans (shown in the lesson plan)
- The Python Programs information (shown in the lesson plan) to assist with the coding element of the lesson
- The student worksheet (shown in the lesson plan) for your pupils to follow along with.
Children who enjoy or excel at this project may be interested in pursuing a career in health science, medicine, IT, science or maths.
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Completion time: 45-90 minutes
- Suitable for: Years 7-9 or Key Stage 3
2. LEGO Education SPIKE Prime: Break Dance
The Break Dance project will encourage your pupils to build a LEGO “break dancer” and program it to follow the rhythm of lights and beats. Using the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime set, your pupils will learn how to successfully use a range of data types such as time, speed and degree of rotation. As with the Brain Game, this project can be tweaked to focus on maths or language arts skills.
To complete this project, you’ll need:
- LEGO Education SPIKE Prime sets (one kit for every two pupils)
- The two building plans (shown in the lesson plan)
- The Python Programs information (shown in the lesson plan) to assist with programming the break dancer
- The student worksheet (shown in the lesson plan) to guide your pupils through the project.
Children who enjoy or excel at this project may be interested in pursuing a career in health, medicine or biomedicine.
- Difficulty: Beginner level
- Completion time: 30-45 minutes
- Suitable for: Years 7-9 or Key Stage 3
3. LEGO Education SPIKE: Super Clean-Up
The Super Clean-Up LEGO Education project invites your pupils to assess the efficiency of two separate grabber designs and determine which is the most effective based on a set of criteria. Using LEGO Education SPIKE Prime, your pupils will learn how to create a criteria for evaluating a product and how to conduct a test to measure its efficiency. As with many LEGO education activity ideas, this project can be adjusted to incorporate maths and language arts skills.
To complete this project, you’ll need:
- LEGO Education SPIKE Prime sets (one kit for every two pupils)
- Empty plastic bottles
- Balls of crumpled paper
- Apples (or objects of similar weight)
- Weighing scales
- The three building plans (shown in the lesson plan)
- The “Test Tables” PDF (shown in the lesson plan)
- The Python Programs information (shown in the lesson plan) to assist with programming the grabbers
- The student worksheet (shown in the lesson plan) to guide your pupils through the project
Children who enjoy or excel at this project may be interested in pursuing a career in horticultural science, business and finance, or manufacturing and engineering.
- Difficulty: Beginner level
- Completion time: 30-45 minutes
- Suitable for: Years 7-9 or Key Stage 3
4. LEGO Education BricQ Motion: Tightrope Walker
The Tightrope Walker project allows your pupils to build a tightrope and a tightrope walker figurine. Using the LEGO Education BricQ Motion set, they will explore the forces of gravity as they aim to keep the tightrope walker balanced to ensure they don’t fall off.
As with many LEGO Education projects, this lesson can be adjusted to incorporate maths skills.
To complete this project, you’ll need:
- LEGO Education BricQ Motion sets (one kit for every two pupils)
- Building instructions Book “A” (shown in the lesson plan)
- The assessment rubric (shown in the lesson plan)
- The student worksheet (shown in the lesson plan) to guide your pupils through the project
The fundamental skills your pupils will learn from this project will prepare them for the more advanced science and maths subjects they will study later in their education.
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Completion time: 30-45 minutes
- Suitable for: Years 1-3
5. LEGO Education BricQ Motion: Dog Obstacle Course
The Dog Obstacle Course project is a great way to introduce your class to the LEGO Education BricQ Motion kit. While building an obstacle course for dogs, pupils will explore how push and pull forces affect the motion of an object. As with many LEGO Education STEM projects for kids, you can adjust this lesson to incorporate language arts skills too.
To complete this project, you’ll need:
- LEGO Education BricQ Motion kits (one kit for every two pupils)
- Building instructions Book “A” (shown in the lesson plan)
- The assessment rubric (shown in the lesson plan)
- The student worksheet (shown in the lesson plan) to guide your pupils through the project
The fundamental skills your pupils will learn from this project will prepare them for the more advanced science subjects they will study later in their education.
- Difficulty: Beginner level
- Completion time: 30-45 minutes
- Suitable for: Years 1-3
Make STEM learning fun for your class with LEGO Education
We have a range of LEGO Education products available to help teach your pupils valuable STEM skills through exciting and engaging projects. If you need some advice on which products to choose or how much equipment you’ll need for your class, you can contact us or enquire about getting trained in LEGO Education with OKdo. We’ll be happy to help.
Browse our collection of LEGO Education products today and make STEM lessons fun for everyone.
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