In a world in which creative thinking is ever more important but the time available in the school day to nurture it feels ever more compressed, a resource that offers young minds the freedom to create and play without limits, with the flexibility to be used across the Key Stage 2 curriculum, is worth its weight in gold.
Enter LEGO® – the colourful bricks that effortlessly link logic and reasoning with creativity while providing children with the chance to make things they see in the real world, experiment with their surroundings, and get hands- and minds-on with fascinating concepts.
Now, while handing some bricks out in class to play with is fine, having a problem-solving purpose and a meaningful context in mind is the key to unlocking LEGO’s true potential.
This is why the LEGOLAND® Discovery Centres in Birmingham and Manchester are a must-visit for primary school groups.
If you haven’t been, these centres are colourful, joyful, interactive playgrounds that excite and inspire children with their tactile challenges. And now, there’s even more reason to book a bricktastic trip thanks to new Learn and Build workshops, which facilitate independent learning within a specific curriculum focus.
What’s on offer?
For KS2, the choice of Learn and Build workshops includes three engaging options: Gravity Car Derby, Race Car, and Bobsled. Each integrates hands-on materials and activities designed by LEGO Education, is around 45 minutes long, and can accommodate up to 30 children.
The sessions are led by the Discovery Centres’ teams and are expertly scaffolded, delivered in a non-judgemental environment in which pupils have the chance to explore science concepts as they try, fail, and try again.
‘Gravity Car Derby’ focuses on conducting an investigation to collect evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of a gravity-powered car. Children build a vehicle, find a hill, and off they go!
“The centres are colourful, joyful, interactive playgrounds that excite and inspire children with their tactile challenges.”
The ‘Race Car’ workshop is all about customising a race car to explore different variables, like mass and rolling resistance, to see whose car can go the farthest. Your pupils can take on the personas of a F1 pit crew and learn what it means to choose the right wheels!
Last but not least, in the ‘Bobsled’ workshop, children grab their helmets and explore how gravity affects the motion of bobsleds based on mass. Will the crowd be cheering or jeering, and who will cross the finishing line in the fastest time?
These real-life scenarios help students contextualise what they’re learning. Crucially, they’re fun, actively engaging, socially interactive, and iterative.
Inspiring learning
Utilising LEGO Education’s BricQ Motion Essential kits, the workshops are the perfect context for curious scientists, daring dreamers, playful collaborators, and bold adventurers to work collaboratively in original construction play.
They offer a safe environment for children to build, change, fiddle and experiment and exercise their creative muscles; a place to develop their courage and confidence by taking risks and seeing what works and what doesn’t without the fear of criticism.
“A visit should be viewed as a springboard to unleash collective creativity in the classroom.”
And this engaging and effective approach to learning doesn’t have to stop when you leave the Discovery Centre. A visit should be viewed as a springboard to unleash collective creativity in the classroom, fostering problem-solving and decision-making skills when pupils return to school.
So, if you want to inspire your class with an awesome day out, packed with opportunities to get creative, don’t delay – follow the LEGO-brick road to a LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, sign up for a workshop, and set things in motion.
The mixture of teamwork and individual challenges makes them a hit with pupils and teachers alike!
In summary
The LEGOLAND Discovery Centres’ Learn and Build workshops foster engagement, challenge, and a motivation to learn and are a conducive atmosphere to help children:
- > discover principles and concepts by constructing, manipulating, and experimenting in a controlled classroom situation
- > conduct real-life experiments to discover the principles and concepts behind forces
- > gain practical knowledge that can be applied in real situations
- > ask questions and participate in active enquiry
- > use critical-thinking skills to solve problems and build new knowledge
- > investigate and find appropriate answers
- > participate in authentic scenarios to promote authentic learning
- > increase their creativity
- > experience plenty of fun in the context of an engaging learning experience
- > be independent learners and develop a sense of self-worth
- > develop cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal 21st-century skills
- > build some memories
It all stacks up to a bricktastic day of playful STEAM learning!
