LEGO Education Launches New SPIKE Prime System and New FIRST LEGO League Sets
This week, I had the opportunity to sit down with my 5-year-old triplets, dump out a bucket of LEGO and explore with them the world of imagination. As a youngster, I loved taking a trip with my imagination and building anything that I wanted to with my LEGO sets.
As a father, I am totally in love with the fact that my own children have picked up that same love of creativity and to see them light up whenever they walk into a LEGO store is pretty awesome.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation in Manhattan where LEGO Education announced and launched a brand new category of LEGO called SPIKE Prime. These new sets are geared towards Middle School students and the combine LEGO Bricks with the brand new Scratch 3.0 coding language to allow students to help students not only become confident as programmers, but confident in all areas of STEAM Education.
An Interview With The President of LEGO Education
While at the event, I had the amazing opportunity to sit down with LEGO Education President Esben Staerk Joergensen. He and I discussed the present and future of LEGO Education and what makes the LEGO brick so versatile.
I would like to say THANK YOU to the team at LEGO Education and it's marketing team for inviting me to the event and allowing me to have the opportunity to speak with Esben. It was pretty awesome!
Why is SPIKE Prime Exciting?
For many of us, we grew up using LEGO Mindstorm kits, or the popular WeDo 2.0 systems. SPIKE Prime might be thought of as the next advancement of these solutions.
New Multi-port Hub
A new component of the SPIKE Prime system is the brand new multi-port Hub that acts as the brains of the system. From here, students can explore endless possibilities both in the physical and digital classroom.
New LEGO Curriculum
One of the most exciting features of SPIKE Prime is a brand new series of standards-based curricular lessons that were written by educators from around the world. More than 30 lessons come included with the system and they are designed to last no more than 45 minutes which gives teachers PLENTY of time to have students enter class, get building, and have everything put neatly away before the bell rings.
Learn About SPIKE Prime Today
SPIKE Prime Competition Expansion Sets Announced at FIRST Championship
Another big announcement also recently happened when LEGO Education along with FIRST unveiled two new exclusive LEGO sets designed for the 2019-2020 FIRST LEGO Leage Jr and FIRST LEGO League season. The new sets are based on the theme of architecture and are called BOOMTOWN BUILD and CITY SHAPER. The sets will reach more than 130,000 students from grades K-5 and 320,000 students in grades 6-12 respectively will give students experience working with architects and engineers.
According to LEGO Education, the mission of these sets is to “emulate real-world challenges that architects and engineers face, like inspecting a building for cracks or designing a city that is accessible for people with all needs.”
For more information, please check out these great resources from LEGO Education
- LEGO Education Website
- Lesson Plans
- Learning Math and Science through Play
It's Never Too Early To Build With LEGO
As my triplets get older they are growing more comfortable putting bricks together and creating pretend scenarios. Just about every week, we work on imagining, building, and play.
So … What will you build today?
About the author, Jeffrey Bradbury
Jeff Bradbury, creator of TeacherCast, and father of the famous @EduTriplets Thanks for checking out TeacherCast today. Please take a moment to find me on all of my Social Media channels!