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)
My 3 boys build Legos along with what we are studying. For example we just studied Ancient Egypt so they all built their own pyramids complete with Egyptians, camels and the sphinx.
Thank you.
This is awesome! I hope I can win this for the kids "summer school" learning.
Love your blog and am inspired with your Lego balloon car! Awesome!
I'm not sure how to incorporate them although I would love to and my boys would *love* it too!
Just yesterday, I used a handful of mini figures to "show" my kindergartner the concept of subtraction. He loved it!
what an amazing resource! Thanks for the info and giveaway!
I was the "Lego Mom" for our homeschool group's Lego Club for the last 2 years. I have invited another mom to take over that job so that I can start a new group using the Lego Education products. I have not decided what I'm planning to use yet: I'm still in the research stage. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences ~ I can't wait to share what I've learned!
This fall I'm planning to use Legos to reinforce note lengths and beats.
We use them in math, language (prepositions), and history (to recreate scenes).
We have wanted to incorporate legos into our homeschooling but honestly, their sets are too expensive for our little budgets. I would ADORE winning this so we can! :)
We have wanted to incorporate legos into our homeschooling but honestly, their sets are too expensive for our little budgets. I would ADORE winning this so we can! :)
My six year old son would sit and play with legos all day so I love to find new ways to incorporate them into home education.
As of right now we use Legos for fun, creative, free play. However, I know they would LOVE the idea of Legos joining their homeschool! The Legos Simple Machines sound AMAZING. My twins love playing with their Snap Circuits Jr., so I could see them having a LOT of fun (and learning!) with this set!
This looks really cool! Thanks for the chance to win!
I just let the kids use their imagination and build whatever they want. I have not done anything really structured with Legos.
My kids love Legos but haven't incorporated much into their lessons
This set looks great
Have been following your blog for a few months now and we are loving all your LEGO learning ideas. My son will have a great time learning and creating with this set! Thanks!
I have 4 boys so we use lego EVERYDAY for everything! Excited to learn more about LEGO machines!
My boys would be over the moon!!
My son has a hard time focusing, we've had to be creative in our approach to teaching him. Legos always seem to bridge the gap whether it's for math, reading, or just a bribe to finish up.
So far we don't use Legos educationally, but I would love to start! The education kits you use sound so intriguing to me, and both of my kids LOVE Legos right now.
I would love to have this set for my grandson...he's 12 and has been homeschooled for several years by me...he adores Legos. I love your blog page and will continue to use your ideas, etc. Thanks for sharing.
My boys enjoy all things Lego. My youngest has been attending a Lego robotics class at our local coop.
We use Legos for creative purposes.
LOVE this! My 3 boys are lego crazy!