LEGO Challenge – Build to Order Lesson Plan incorporating LEGO Digital Designer
If the children’s tables are becoming lost beneath a sea of Justin Bieber pens and Angry Bird erasers, get them to design and build their own desk tidies, suggests Rob Widger…
- by Rob Widger
In this activity the challenge is simple: use the LEGO Digital Designer – a free, downloadable program available here – to design a desk tidy for the table that can hold pencils, pens, erasers and paper clips.
The software provides children with the tools to experiment with different ideas and to produce a set of instructions ( or a ‘build guide’), which they or other pupils can then follow to construct the desk tidy.
1. Connect
Start the challenge by discussing learning objectives with the class. The students will use the LEGO Digital Designer to create a desk tidy and then build it.
Show a picture of an untidy room or desk. Why is it important to keep things tidy? Draw out from the students that tidy places and spaces not only look better and feel calmer, they also make it easier to find things – and that an organised desk makes for a better working area.
Explain the process children need to run through in order to come up with a final product:
• Sketch rough designs on paper • Choose a design and create a virtual model of it using the software • Evaluate the design, making any necessary changes • Create a build guide for the design • Build the desk tidy out of the LEGO bricks you have • Review what you have done
2. Construct
Ask the students to look at different desk tidies on the web and sketch some ideas down on paper. Choose one of their sketches and use the LEGO Digital Designer to model this design before producing a printout and evaluating it as a class. Ask the students to go back to the software and make any necessary changes to their design before creating a build guide for it.
3. Contemplate
How do they think the build went? Are there any changes they could make to improve their designs? Is any given design tall enough to hold the amount of pencils and pens it needs to? How can they test this?
Guide children to the conclusion that they could collect some LEGO bricks and build a small tower to see how many rows of bricks they will need.
Did they take into account the need to build a small tray for the paper clips and eraser? What would happen if the tray was too tall for these items? Children should come to the conclusion that the sections of the desk tidy need to be large enough to provide easy access.
Now that they have considered the potential difficulties, it’s time for the children to make any final changes to their designs and create a build guide using the software.
4. Construct
LEGO Digital Designer can be used in many situations as part of the ICT and D&T curriculums. Allow students to fully explore the software and gain experience with using it.
Following the initial desk tidy activity, ask the students to design a new tidy within a set budget. Who can build the cheapest desk tidy (i.e. the one which uses fewest bricks) that can still hold two pens, three pencils, one eraser and five paperclips? This should link very nicely into the maths curriculum.
This session is designed to run for about 60 minutes, but dedicating time to learning the software in advance will give the students more time to design and build.
