Subject:
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Re: teaching Lego Class -- Need Syllabus Help
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 27 May 2004 14:53:53 GMT
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Viewed:
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1135 times
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Paul Hartzog wrote:
> Legomania I: Ages 7-9. Creates hands-on activities to teach
> students about fixed and moveable parts. Teaches about working
> models of simple machines, tools and gadgets"
First, it's unclear if you are teaching adults how to teach children, or if
you are teaching children? In either case, the below gives some ideas (I hope).
I've been teaching (or trying to teach) Lego robotics for two years now to
5-12 year olds, and came to the conclusion that in most cases it was a little
too difficult. On the other hand, the basic educational kits from Lego-Dacta
were a big hit: they teach simple pulleys, simple levers, simple pneumatics,
simple vehicles. The energy kits also went over well (here's where the Lego
capacitor really shines). Structured, simple lessons were my aim, and they
seemed to work best.
Ideas: make a "car" (unpowered) that can roll down a ramp and go as far as
possible. Can be used to teach them friction (how to minimize it) as well as
strong, rigid structures. Once you've done that, rubber-band cars are a logical
extension ("logical extension" ends up being a very nice way to knit sequences
of topics or tasks together). Or do a variation on the "balsa wood bridge" (how
strong a structure (bridge, or perhaps tower) can you build? One that holds the
most weight wins... or, variation, the one that holds the most as a percentage
of the structure weight, to push towards minimal structures). Lego models of DNA
& RNA-protein synthesis are also nice (to show how Lego can be used as a
modeling system, and a good one at that), but probably not aimmed at your target
audience. In the most recent issue of the Lego magazine, they talked about Lego
tops - another great experiment. Kids can m,ake a top easily enough, but there's
a lot they can learn in the process (strong structures, moment of inertia
(forget the terminology here, it will just scare 'em - teach the concept, and
its usefulness. Once they have *that*, you can give a principle or quantity a
name. The difference is in teaching understanding, vs. memorizing terms. Sorry,
I'll get off my soapbox now).
What materials will you have (in the way of Lego)? Can you order some, and
who's picking up the tab (or to put that another way, who ends up with the Lego?
Don't buy a bunch of stuff you don't want, just to run the class).
> they want me to teach things like terminology...
Basic unit of measure (stud, plate), naming of parts ("The naming of parts is
a difficult matter, it isn't just one of your holiday games,...", but I
digress), Secrets of strong structures (are you limiting yourself to "just
bricks & plates", or technic (with beam-plate-plate-beam cross-braced
structures)).
--
Brian Davis
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: teaching Lego Class -- Need Syllabus Help
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| (...) the students are Ages 7-9 (15 kids) I've got a general idea of what I want to do, I'm just looking for lots of ideas and then I can parse them and compare to what I think already. I'll probably call PITSCO's free syllabus help line, and lego (...) (21 years ago, 27-May-04, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | teachhing Lego Class -- Need Syllabus Help
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| I am hoping to teach a Lego class for the University of Utah this summer. I am "required to prepare and submit a class syllabus and an outline of topics to be discussed. Legomania I: Ages 7-9. Creates hands-on activities to teach students about (...) (21 years ago, 26-May-04, to lugnet.general, lugnet.space)
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