LEGO Education® Simple Machines and a LEGO Balloon Car
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 5:00AM
One of the best additions to our LEGO resources has been the Simple Machines set from Lego Education®.
Not only has my son enjoyed free building with this set, but he has also sat down with the many instructions and has begun to build and experiment on his own.
With regular LEGOS, my son builds, we take pictures, display the finished products, and he always has fun.
With the products from LEGO Education®, however, we can delve DEEPER into learning about science, technology, education and math (STEM).
The Simple Machines set has been such a valuable resource in our home!
I did not know (until just a few months ago) that LEGO Education® makes products SPECIFICALLY for homeschoolers.
We have had the pleasure of using the StoryStarter set and also the Simple and Motorized Mechanisms set. You can see read about those on my LEGO Learning page.
This Simple Machines set with printable activity guide is another product LEGO Education® makes just for us!
STEM with LEGO Education®
The collage above takes you through one of the first lessons in the activity pack. My son built (using the instructions) a Merry-Go-Round. He learned about gears and gear ratios. He also learned lots of other great vocabulary words and concepts.
In this particular model, the gear ration is 3:1. One of the gears had 24 teeth. The other had 8. It took 3 turns of the crank to make the minifig go around one time. Then, my son modified the model just a bit to change it to a 40 tooth gear and a 24 tooth gear. The ration changed to 5:3.
I was able to talk him through all of this. The lessons are completely scripted, with a guide printed for me. A CD with printable worksheets even goes along with this set.
This would be perfect for individual homeschool use or a co-op setting, too.
Score.
This set will be an integral part of our homeschool science in the coming year.
*If you want to find out more about this set, visit LEGO Education®'s site to see all of the specifics. I think you will be VERY impressed.
Making a LEGO Balloon Car with Simple Machines
We had seen many balloon car challenges online. I presented the task to my son last week.
I showed him a picture of a balloon car. We watched a few videos.
I told him he could just use his Simple Machines set.
I told him to think about a few things:
- The car must be vertically and horizontally stable.
- The balloon needs to have enough space to inflate.
- The wheels should be protected so the balloon doesn't hit them.
This little task is harder than it looks! I believe it took well over an hour to achieve success.
It's funny, though, because he never got discouraged. It was a compulsion to make the car GO. Playing with LEGO bricks can be like that. Sometimes it's just hard to be FINISHED!
Grant was so pleased with himself (I didn't help at all!) and asked me to make a video.
As a parent I can't ask for anything more than focused learned, experimentation, and a passion to know MORE.
LEGO Education® has helped me nurture all of these in my child.
Here is the amazing news! I am giving away one of the complete Homeschool Simple Machines Pack with Printed Teacher's Guide to one lucky reader.
This is a $109.95 value!
Follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.
I am a member of the LEGO Education® blogger program. I was given this product in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.
Reader Comments (165)
Love your blog! Thanks for all the great info!
I have not yet..just starting this fall.
We used LEGOs to learn shapes and colors when my littles we younger. We use them right now to help with math.
I just finished my first year of homeschooling. I love your blog! Thank you for sharing!
We use LEGOs for math as often as possible. It really helped my son visualize fractions.
I write words on legos and we do sorting activites with them. (parts of speech, types of animals, etc)
I incorporate Legos in just about every subject because I have THREE Lego fanatics in my home. One of them recently used Legos to build a model of the heart (we learned about the human body this past year). I am considering doing a Lego co-op in my home either next fall or spring for other homeschoolers. The kids are sure begging.
I love your blog! So many cool teaching ideas and ways to make learning fun!
I think it is awesome how you use Legos in your homeschool. It is amazing what cam become educational with a little bit of instruction. Live your ideas and blog.
We use Legos for building, math, colors.
Wow! I had no idea Lego had these options geared toward homeschoolers. This would be great for the fall
THese look amazingly fun...my two kids have just started getting more interested in their legos. I would love to add this to our collection!
Thank you for your blog - we simply LOVE your ideas :)
I love how using legos helps my son learn to think better in all his school subjects.
We play Lego's all day long. We are learning through play all day. :)
My sons love to play with their Legos.
Right now we mostly do free building. My son loves to build cars, though, so the simple machines set would be an awesome way to get him thinking about those building concepts like stability and gear ratios (plus I think it would speak right to his little "How it's Made" heart!)
I have to get some of these sets. Love it!
What an awesome set ... we sooooo need this. :)
We haven't incorporated LEGOs into our homeschool but I'd love to give it a try!
My son was so excited when he watched the video of the balloon car. He ran right upstairs to make his own!
I have used them to reinforce spelling by writing the letters on the bricks and having my children spell their words. We also use them as a wrap up activity to build what we studied in science or history. We even used them to represent the art technique of Pointilism.
Awesome! Thanks for the give away!
Every year, our homeschool group has a "Presentation Night" during which the kids can do a presentation on anything they like. My daughter did her presentation on LEGOs. She included history, how to include LEGO in math, writing, etc., guided LEGO building projects and more. That inspired me to search around the web for more ways to include LEGO in our school and led me to your blog! I ordered the LEGO storystarter set for next year and with your inspiration, we will be finding even more ways to include LEGO in our days! Thanks so much for your blog and sharing your ideas with us. I so appreciate it!
Tell Grant he did a great job on his car as well! I especially love the flourish at the end of the video. :) Thanks for the chance to win! We would love to learn more about simple machines with LEGO!
I would love to win!! My kids are going to be so blessed to attend at STEM Lego class this fall at our co-op! I'm SO excited that it is being offered! I would love to try some of these things at home as well! :)