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)
This is my first visit to your blog! Until today I was not aware that Lego made educational products - I'm officially lusting over these. I'm a homeschooling Mama to first grader who is also a Lego junkie! I'm so glad I found this blog!
I would love to use these with my kids. They all love legos and learning how things work.
Great giveaway! I just let them play, and we talk about what they are doing.
My kids LOVE Legos, so they are a natural learning tool. They are very effective when it comes to learning how things work together and offer all kinds of options for creative exploration.
Wow, cool project & product! Thanks for sharing
Drew would love this set!!
Just beginning our homeschooling journey and I'm glad to have found your blog!
This will be by first year homeschooling, so I am excited to see how I will incorporate Lego's into it!
My son is just getting into 'real' Legos - but we've been using Duplos for years and learning about patterning and measuring along with a lot of counting and problem solving!
We've taken an open-ended approach so far., They build and usually bring to life something related to what we are learning about!
I love to see all the things you can use legos for in homeschooling.
We are very new to Legos. Our daughter (age 11) heard about Legos Education and is interested but I have no idea where to start. We also have a four-year-old son who I think would also enjoy them. Would I need 2 different sets since the kids are seven years apart in age? We homeschool and I think they would get used a lot for various projects. I would appreciate your input. Thank you!
Math, colors, sorting, and lots and lots of fun!
I didn't know about this set. My kiddos would love it.
We haven't used Legos in school yet, but we would like to. We are huge fans.
Love the idea of using the Simple Machines set! My kids use our Legos for everything from storytelling to engineering.
Well... the better question might be how DON'T we incorporate LEGO into our learning... ;-)
history, science, literature, etc. are all constantly being acted out in this house using bricks.
My boys usually come up with building projects on their own, but they get a lot of ideas from what we have learned in school.
We incorporate legos to help our kids learn how to follow written directions. Plus, letting them be creative and design their own objects. It might be fun for them to create their own object, write directions for it, and see if someone else can put their object together.
Honestly you are helping me figure out how to incorporate legos into our school. I am planning on starting soon. My son loves all things legos and so far we have just used the currclick lego club to build things as part of our homeschool following the online class but I would like to get more creative and really use legos with what we are specifically learning. We would love to win this giveaway! Awesome! Have a great day!
We try to incorporate legos as often as possible - but this would certainly help me do a better job! Thanks for all your awesome ideas!
Wanting to try this with a class. They would love it.
Absolutely AMAZING information! My rising first grader is a Lego fanatic, so I look forward to incorporating Lego play for math, language arts, and creative art. Knowing that these products are available offers a whole new opportunity for exploration of our subject matter.......LOVE LEGOS! And love your blog! :)
I'm excited to incorporate Lego into our homeschool lessons for next year! Thank you for this wonderful blog!
So far, we have only used Lego for art, following directions, and fine motor skills, but I'd certainly love to incorporate Lego into our curriculum a lot more.