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)
Please link up to my Lego linky It is about this very topic this week
All five of my children would LOVE this! I had no idea that LEGO does this!
Thanks for the chance to win this set! It looks awesome! My boys LOVE Legos, and have used them to learn colors and counting in the past. I haven't used them for school recently, but I should get back to it...
We're big Lego fans! This set would be great for school.
We used them as counters in math -but I dream of being more like you!!
We haven't done much formal integration of legos into our learning (despite all my pins on the topic!), but my kids love to make creations to send in to the lego magazine contests, and it sure does feel like they are learning when they tackle those projects! These products look amazing!
Wow! Amazing my sons also home educated would LOVE this...
I would love, love, LOVE to win this!!!
We are huge Lego fans too, and this is something that we might just use. I'll have to look into it.
I've led co-op groups using Lego education kits. Coupled with youtube videos and some handouts, they make for a great lesson on basic concepts. Thank you!
My son dreams of being a Lego engineer! This would be so awesome to start him off. And I had no idea about the education site, that's so cool!
How exciting! I love your blog and my daughter is excited about the simple machines.
We build while I read aloud, it is a great 'fidget' and helps them focus!! they want me to read for hours! (sometimes they just sort as well since things get messed up!)
love lego learning. Have used them for science, math, and (my son's favorite) free play time. I know he learns with lego.
I haven't use Lego much for the last couple years. When my son was younger we used them for sorting, counting, and addition and subtraction.
We have plenty of legos but haven't ever intentionally schooled with them.
I use Lego's for review and games. I've been really wanting Lego Education for our homeschool. Thanks for the giveaway!
We love to use Lego for math and science, and just for free play.
Hi! This would be such a wonderful teaching tool for my 3 boys! Thanks for offering the giveaway!
My son would love this--looks great!
We use lego for fine motor, color sorting, pattern making, reading and following directions, and pretend play.
The kids play with Lego everyday. This kit is on our wishlist to get them this Christmas. When the kids were younger we used Duplo a lot to learn counting:)
So far we have only used Legos for Math as a manipulative.
We use Legos with our youngest for math, science and to help work on his fine motor skills, he has left hemi CP and Legos have always been his favorite "mommy" home therapy, this would be a wonderful set to win, we could do so much more than what we do already.
My boys like to build while they are listening to audiobooks or as I'm reading out read aloud for the day.
We love legos