LEGO Learning With Simple & Motorized Mechanisms
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 5:00AM 
I thought we knew a lot about LEGO.
In the past several weeks, however, I've discovered we've just scratched the surface with all of the goodness LEGO Education has to offer.
When the Simple and Motorized Mechanisms set was delivered to our house, I had Grant open the box, organize the pieces and look through the instruction books.
Since it was at a middle school level, I told him to wait for a bit until I could help him - or until I could get one of our middle school boy LEGO lovers to come over and assist.
Finally, I caved in and just let Grant HAVE AT IT.
He has been building something different every day - and learning SO MUCH in the process.
About the Set
While the set is designed for classrooms at the middle grades level, it has been SO applicable to our homeschool.
You can click over and see the specifics of the set for yourself.
When you consider how much regular LEGO sets cost, the price of this is actually quite good. It will provide many many hours of learning and enjoyment for both of my kids. Since it arrived, it has gotten several hours of play time each day. (Right now we have just explored the base set, but we have some of the add-on packs, too.)
In my opinion (for what it's worth), I would rather have one of these large education sets than several of the themed LEGO sets. The creativity and learning is exponential.
I love that Grant is experimenting with size of wheels and how they affect speed (we talked about surface area). He is learning about motors and gears. He is learning how to work with more detailed instructions. He is talking about bushings, and showing me exactly what makes the wheels turn in a motorized creation.
This is a great tool for my math and engineering minded little guy.
Simple & Motorized Mechanisms in Action
We created several Vine videos to show you his creations. He loves to make something and then do a Vine to go with it.
{If you're not on Vine, it's really fun - short vidoes that are shared in an Instagram style. There are a lot of die hard LEGO maniacs on Vine, too - so many great and creative videos to watch!}
*You may need to mouse over the videos for them to begin playing. If you don't have sound, in the upper left corner of the video is a speaker you can click.
Don't you love on this last video how he says, "Non Instruction Motor Controlled Car", so that we all know he made this model on his own?
This tells me he has taken what he has learned and is APPLYING THAT KNOWLEDGE. Score.
I'm proud to be a LEGO Education blogger. I want you to be aware of the many products they have that can benefit your homeschool.
I might even be having a GREAT giveaway soon -- keep your eyes on the blog!
*I received the Simple and Motorized Mechanisms set in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.
Reader Comments (9)
His creations are amazing! The price is a bit too steep for us right now, but I must admit it is a nice set.
Very cool, Mary! I love how into this Grant is :) Thanks for sharing.
How do you get signed up to be a lego blogger? I wanna do that! ;-) My son would LOVE this set. I may see if our family wants to go in on getting this for his birthday. Thanks for sharing!
Grant did a great job!! I can't wait to read more about these sets in the coming months.
Lego's are amazing!
I never knew they had educational sets. Usually the themed sets come with specialized pieces that can only be used with that specific set, so it's great to see that they allow room for creativity here.
This set looks amazing! I have been considering a purchase of one of the Lego Education sets: I would love to ask you a few questions before I buy one. Is it OK to contact you with those questions?
Thanks for including the video links - very helpful!!
Hi Mary! The videos are so cute! I can just feel his enthusiasm! Thanks again for telling us about these wonderful sets. I need to order one right now! ;)
What set did you buy? My son loves Legos and we have tons of them but he would love this!
Mary, how old was your son when he got this set?