Seriously — LEGO Engineering for Kids?
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Kids already are natural builders. Give them LEGOS, facilitation, and information and watch as kids become engineers.
Actually, I never thought about engineering for kid until AJ (4th grade) took a Play-Well Engineering FUNdamentals class after school, which she loves. It got me thinking about all the ways to learn about engineering – and, you know I love to research and learn so I’ve gathered some great resources to share with you!
LEGO Engineering
But, let’s start with the Play-Well Engineering FUNdamentals Class. In the class I observed, AJ learned about pneumatics and made a claw. (Admittedly, I didn’t even know the word pneumatics – am I smarter than a 4th grader? Ha.)
I won’t share the secrets of the Play-Well classes but I’ll tell you that the claws were really amazing.
The kids experimented picking up things and then had a relay race.
I loved the learning, the collaboration, the experimenting, and the fun!
You do this kind of LEGO engineering exploration at home or in your own community, too. Here’s how.
Engineering at Home
- Go to LEGO Education and see what education sets you can purchase.
- Radio Shack has many kits which involve building and engineering.
- Funutation classes
- Play-Well also offers birthday parties and other events.
- RoX app teaches strategy in building shapes.
Engineering Books For Kids
Engineering the ABCs by Patty O’Brien Novak
Steven Caney’s Ultimate Building Book
Engineering the City: How Infrastructure WorksÂ
The Curious Adventures of Sydney and Symon in: Water Wonders
Engineering Competitions
Future Cities Competition – 6th, 7th, and 8th graders compete to plan a city.
Math Counts – a national math enrichment program and competition.
Invent It. Build It. – Girl Scouts and Aspire
Engineering Learning Resources
Society of Women Engineers: Aspire – resources for K-12 students.
Engineering Education Service Center – Outreach and hands-on activities in engineering.
A World in Motion – bringing STEM in the classroom.
Alice from Carnegie Mellon – educational software that teaches computer programming in a 3D programming environment
Scratch from MIT – a programming language for everyone to create interactive stories, games, music, and art
FisherTechNik – a construction toy brand that teaches engineering through play.
Aren’t these cool resources?
What do you think about engineering for kids?
This is a fabulous post with a ton of information! Even the comments are full of great ideas and recommendations! Thank you for sharing.
Wow, Melissa – I was sooooo excited to see this posting AND even more excited that you included my book “Engineering the ABC’s” in your article! Thank you so much – I am honored to be included in your postings. And thank you too for writing this great article on engineering for kids. So many people think engineering is too hard for kids or “way above them.” But really, engineering is just life!
Hilarious – yes, I totally mixed up the word!!
What an excellent list of resources! I can’t wait to try some of these out with my sons! Just thought I’d ask though, when you say she learned about “mnemonics” I wonder if she may have learned about “pneumatics” instead, as “mnemonics” are little tricks and ways to help people remember things, whereas “pneumatics” have to do with using liquids under pressure to cause things to move. Just thought I’d mention it so you’d know what to look up if she is looking to learn more about the subject in the future. Thanks again for all the resources!
What a great post! It is filled with such wonderful ideas.