Junior Cal Carmichael’s love for LEGOs began as a child.
“My parents bought me and my brother a few LEGO sets for Christmas each year when I was really little, and I enjoyed playing with them. When the Covid lockdowns happened, me and my brother rebuilt all of our old sets [and] I’d say that is when I really start[ed] enjoying LEGO,” he said.
Carmichael said his experience with LEGO has changed over time. Most notably, he found that building sets has another unlikely benefit: enhancing his problem solving skills.
“When building a LEGO set, I think you learn a lot of patience,” Carmichael said. “When ‘free building’ or making your own designs, you can learn a lot of important skills. You might not have every piece you need [or you may not] know how to make a certain shape or part of what you want to make. Building like this forces you to find creative solutions to problems and think in ways that you normally do not.”
Although LEGO is commonly thought of as a toy, the LEGO company saw educational potential in the bricks and formed LEGO Education, a division of the company focused on the educational applications of the bricks. This school’s LEGO Education representative Tracey Dingle said that the role of LEGO Education is to work with teachers to incorporate LEGO into the school day.
“[LEGO Education] works directly with districts and schools to basically [promote] LEGO as a hands-on resource for students within their buildings,” Dingle said. “We’re very much backed by the standards that the state [sets] and students have to meet in order to move on to the next grade level.”
Erica Combs, Principles of Teaching and Education Professions teacher, said the use of LEGO develops a variety of soft-skills.
“Activities such as LEGO allow the learner to problem-solve and use their creative thinking,” Combs said. “Most often it is built around collaboration and working hands on with others, which promotes communication skills and builds real world applications”
Dingle said LEGO can also help bridge some of the gaps caused by COVID-19.
“Especially after COVID, so many students struggle with communication, they struggle with spatial awareness, they struggle with collaborating with their peers within the classroom. All of these pieces really do help in bringing students together and teaching real-word concepts,” Dingle said.
Improving Classroom Engagement
Following the pandemic, research showed a dip in classroom engagement. A report from the Center of Reinventing Public Education found that 40% of district leaders reported having moderate or major concerns about engagement during in-person instruction during the 2021-2022 school year.
Combs said tactile learning and non-traditional teaching methods can make learning more enjoyable and increase student engagement.
“Most of us learn more and tend to remember so much more when we are engaged in hands-on activities,” Combs said. “Activities that are more physical or hands-on are usually much more engaging, accessible and fun. The learner is able to use many different senses when interacting physically with objects, leading to a greater understanding and to more active learning. When you capture the students’ interest it ignites curiosity and that can lead to increased motivation to learn.”
Dingle shared a similar view and said hands-on experiences lead to more intentional learning and increased student engagement.
“When students are connecting their brain to what their hands are doing the outcomes are a little bit more intentional,” Dingle said.
Additionally, Dingle said student engagement is an important metric in judging the success of LEGO Education.
“If an experience is more meaningful, when it comes to learning, they end up retaining the information a lot better than if they weren’t hands -on,” Dingle said. “The way that we really gauge whether or not something is successful or not is through student engagement. A huge part of the learning [research] these days is that if students aren’t engaged, they’re not gonna get what they need from it.”
Combs agreed and said student engagement is directly related to learning retention.
“Engagement promotes academic success,” Combs said. “When engagement in learning occurs, it creates a more dynamic learning environment which can increase the motivation to learn. When students are enjoying the task at hand, they tend to be more enthusiastic and active in the learning process, which helps them to retain information and makes connections to prior knowledge. And when we can make connections and actively apply what we are learning, we will better understand the information.”
Carmichael said the joy associated with LEGO can make activities more memorable.
“The familiarity that most people have with LEGO and the hands-on experience that it provides makes activities that use LEGO more memorable which may make the topic the teacher is trying to illustrate stick with the students more,” Carmichael said.
A Variety of Applications
Carmichael said he has already used LEGO in AP Research and said he also sees their value in a STEM setting.
“I used LEGO in my AP Research class during an activity,” Carmichael said. “We had to build anything we wanted, and then create clear instructions on how to build it. You then were given someone else’s instructions, and had to try to rebuild their creation.” Carmichael said. “I think LEGO could be most beneficial in a STEM setting, especially with younger kids. Building robots or mechanisms with an unfamiliar ‘system’ might be very difficult, but most kids already know how to build with LEGO and its [technical] parts, which are great for building strong structure[s] with movable parts [which could be applied to robotics].”
Dingle said the benefits of LEGO can be applied to many areas of study.
“I think the beautiful thing is that we live in several different parts of a school day,” Dingle said. “Most of them are going to be used specifically for STEM, for science, for math, for ELA, robotics, engineering. So a lot of career -focused skills that are kind of woven into what LEGO education can offer in terms of resources for schools.”
Dingle said that LEGO is also a versatile and sustainable tool that can be used outside of classroom settings as well.
“We can support any type of engineering or science makerspace,” Dingle said. “We support after-school programming and in addition to summer programming. Let’s say [a] school purchases a set for a classroom, that set can move throughout several parts of a school day. It makes it pretty pretty flexible, as well as sustainable, because it’s a LEGO brick and you don’t have to purchase more every single year.”
The versatility of LEGO grants an opportunity to positively impact specific groups of students. According to Combs, while alternative methods are especially beneficial for certain groups of students, it is important to be intentional about their application.
“Effectiveness can always vary depending on the group of students and their needs, but typically, students that have a learning disability or a shorter attention span can benefit greatly from these methods,” Combs said. “Those that may not benefit as greatly are those traditional learners and students with behavioral challenges that require more structure. The important thing for teachers to do is to apply a variety of teaching methods and provide options for students to create a more engaging classroom.”
Dingle said LEGO can also speak to underserved students.
“I want to speak specifically to girls for a moment, because if I had these types of experiences in the classroom, I think my outlook in careers would have been very different,” Dingle said. “I now know what LEGO bricks can do in a classroom and how they specifically engage with girls from an early age to interest them in STEM backgrounds and computer science”
Ultimately, Dingle said LEGO is for everyone.
“Whether it’s a student who is an exceptional learner, whether it’s a student who is in special education, if it’s a student who has never been successful in a traditional classroom, all of those students, they tend to be very successful with LEGO education,” Dingle said. “If those students are excelling in being hands-on with LEGO education, so can every single student. I think that’s the beautiful thing, it’s not just for one student, it is for all.”
Salima Sher • Jan 30, 2025 at 10:47 pm
Who knew CHS had a LEGO Education representative? What an interesting career?
Salima Sher • Jan 30, 2025 at 10:46 pm
Wow, this is such talent! I cannot believe this is arielle’s first story, it looks so professional! She has a bright future ahead….in LEGO?