Using LEGO Bricks to Teach STEM

Millersville University will offer a free science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education-focused workshop using LEGO Spike Essentials materials suited for education majors on March 18.

This event is a partnership with S2STEM, an education center focused on student enrichment within the STEM umbrella, providing different programs to children to promote a love for these subjects through hands-on activities.

The event will take place on March 18 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Caputo Hall, Room 211. The host of the workshop hopes to encourage participants like Science in Education in Technology & Engineering majors, iSTEM minors, or anyone with an interest in STEM education to be a part of the workshop. There are 15 spaces available for this workshop. Though this workshop is more geared towards students at the university, local teachers are welcome to sign up and learn about how to add LEGOs into their STEM classrooms.

The intention of the workshop is to provide a hands-on experience to attendees by using LEGO building, coding, and robotics in order to teach elementary students STEM-related skills. The goal of this workshop is for participants to learn ways to use these tools and integrate them into their STEM classrooms. “We will be using LEGO Spike Essential kits, which are LEGO bricks specifically designed to provide hands-on learning to encourage problem-solving. The kits can introduce students to coding while keeping the familiarity of building with LEGO bricks,” said graduate assistant for the Department of Education Foundations, Liz Rickrode. “LEGO Spike Essential comes with 10 national-standards-aligned units, so it can easily be incorporated into any classroom. These kits help students to become independent problem solvers and introduce them to STEM fields from a young age.”