Dear Lego Lab Supporters,

Summertime and the livin' is easy!  This is also a time to do some planning for next year's Lego Lab.

The volunteers, educators and I learned a great deal with our first year of the Lego Lab Project at Nelson Mandela School in Berlin, Germany.  Because of what we discovered, we will be focusing the Labs a little bit differently for next school year.  But first a couple of observations that surprised me in the year.

1)  I had no idea that Lego min-figs would be so important to the students.  Many times, they based their whole idea of what they wanted to build around a min-fig.  I'm old.  When I was a kid we didn't have figures--just basic elements and we used our fingers as people.

2)  Some students just don't want to ever break down their creations.  That's a tough one...what do you do when you have a 6 year old who doesn't want to give up a piece he worked on for a couple of weeks even though it is the end of the school year and everyone else has already busted their stuff.   He was the saddest child I've seen in a long time.

Plans for next year.

We will again hold three different labs but they will be a bit different in approach than this past year.

For the Flex (1st & 2nd grade) and the 3rd/4th grade labs, we will alternate every 8 weeks between Girls and Boys Labs so that girls have the opportunity to experiment with technology with like-minded girls is a safe setting.  The minimum students will be 6 and the maximum will be 12.  We will be introducing the students to all the pieces--basically encouraging students to use the right name but the 6 to 8 week workshops will primarily be a free build.

Last year, the Friday Lego Lab was previously open to all Flex 1-6th graders and was a complete a free build.  This year, I will limit the lab to Flex 2-4th grade and only accept 15 students total for the entire year.  In this year's lab, we will explore together the use of tires, hinges/panels/hitches and wings so that students can have a better grasp of these ideas.  Also, students will work more closely together in teams of three. At the end of the school year, we will have an exhibition of the Lab.  There will still be time for a great deal of free build with the other time to actually do themed exploration.

This will all be in preparation for 5th and 6th grade.  The science teacher has purchased Lego education sets and is planning on using the Robotics sets within the science courses that he teaches.  We hope to eventually begin a Lego Robotics Team beginning with the 5th grade and with that team possibly even reaching into the Secondary School.  But the Robotics Team process has to grow organically and I think it's important to start exploring team work in the lower grades to perhaps move towards this concept.  

I want to thank all the wonderful parents who volunteered this past year:  Noel Bush, Eden Kottke, Gabriela Pardo, Britte Klucke, Matthias Pinzel, Christian Niemitz-Rossant, Christine Ast and Sarah Dent.  Also, I want to thank the great Educators who helped out this year:  Frau Samios, Frau Brooks, Frau Freckmann and Frau Ashley.

Exciting times ahead for the Lego Lab and we hope that can join us on this adventure!
Keep on building
Shelia Joneleit
Lego Lab Coordinator