Learning with LEGO
Originally published in TEACH Magazine, March/April 2023 Issue
It’s all about LEGOs! Yes, these little plastic bricks have transcended from a humble childhood toy box staple to a popular and sophisticated educational tool. From STEM to humanities to literacy, these multi-coloured building blocks provide opportunities for students to not only play, but learn too, as they construct a wide variety of models, robots, and more. Let’s look at some LEGO-filled field trips and what they have to offer. Unable to travel out of school? There are on-site field trip options too!
Bricks 4 Kidz
Various locations in Canada
Bricks 4 Kidz offers “in-school field trips” where trained instructors arrive with lesson plans, presentation materials, and all the LEGO bricks your students need. Kids participate in focused themes, including Space, Inventions, Famous Buildings, and Natural Disasters. More advanced levels offer LEGO robotics, coding, and video game design classes.
Brick Adventures
Winnipeg, MB
This mobile set-up brings the field trip fun to you. Pre-school workshops will have kids engaged with trains, a race-car track, a marble run, and giant bags of Duplo LEGO. School-age programs will immerse kids in guided building (3D figures and mosaics) and tech builds using batteries and motors.
Brick Labs
Toronto, ON
At Toronto’s biggest LEGO-based education centre, class activities can range from 2nd graders building a bridge to high schoolers prototyping a product design. Advanced programs also have the option to incorporate role play! From a mayor, a NASA director, or a CEO, learners will take on characters as they build their LEGO stories.
Engineering For Kids
Various locations in Canada
Field trip options include a junior program for younger kids, where they tinker to create robots using LEGO WeDo systems. For older kids, there are programs involving LEGO Mindstorms EV3 for more challenging robot-building and programming. In-school field trips can also be arranged.
LEGOLAND Discovery Centre
Vaughan, ON
This “ultimate indoor LEGO playground” features various build-and-play zones, rides, and more. Students can also benefit from one of the hands-on educational workshops offered at the centre, exploring topics such as pulleys and gears, tower structures, and the construction of narratives.
Snapology
Various locations in Ontario and New Brunswick
Snapology’s Discovery Centre is a play haven filled with LEGO varieties and other building toys such as Magna-Tiles, K’NEX, and polydrons. Choose from dozens of workshops where students get to design amusement parks, invent game bots, and explore favourite themes like Minecraft, Pokémon, Star Wars, and more. Snapology can also visit your school to host an on-site field trip!