The Term 2 LEGO Construction Challenge, run in collaboration with Modern Teaching Aids and Armidale City Public School, wrapped up last week, and boy oh boy was it amazing! Judges were so impressed by the overwhelmingly spectacular 202 entries, finding their way to our inbox from all over Australia. From Christmas Island in the far north western waters, to Melbourne in the south; Sydney, Sawtell, Tenterfield, Scone and everywhere in between – a huge congratulations to all involved.

For those who aren’t familiar, our LEGO Construction Challenge provided students with the opportunity to tap into their inner LEGO Master and create a build around one of four themes – Biodiversity, Microbiology, Bridges, and Towers. These themes reflect the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) acronym and encourage creativity and hands-on, play-based learning. The Challenge has typically run in the form of school holiday sessions in collaboration with Armidale City Public School, however due to restrictions surrounding COVID-19, and as part of UNE Discovery’s ‘Voyage Online’, the decision was made to create an online challenge. This in turn allowed students to create their builds at home or at school, regardless of their location around Australia.

Modern Teaching Aids joined the collaboration with the generous donation of a LEGO SPIKE Prime set of 3, to be given as a prize for the winning class submission. Class entries were equally as creative and wonderful as the individual submissions – thank you to St. Joseph’s Glen Innes Kindergarten and Year 5/6, St Anthony of Padua Catholic College Year 2, Chandler Public School Year 1/2 and 3/4, Woodburn Public School K-6, The Armidale School Year 1 and Epping Boys High School Year 7, for taking your class on a STEAM learning adventure. The winning class entry went to Chandler Public School Year 1/2, who after recent drought, bushfire and pandemic hardships, were so excited that their students would now have access to the amazing STEM teaching programs LEGO SPIKE Prime provides:

“We are so excited about winning the Lego Spike Prime. Here at Chandler we will be competing in the First Lego League Challenge and First Lego League Explore competitions for our second year this year. Unfortunately, last year we were unable to attend the competitions we worked so hard to complete due to awful bushfires that impacted our school community so much. We are looking forward to participating in this year’s First Lego League Showcase and we can’t wait to incorporate the Lego Spike Prime into our STEM program and the Lego Challenges we participate in.”

Congratulations Chandler Public School!

LEGO defines play as the ‘heart of emotional well-being and mental health, which is critical to the balanced development of a child’. With its roots translating to ‘play well’ and ‘I put together’, LEGO provides hands on tools that promote collaboration, confidence, curiosity, patience, persistence and perseverance – setting children up for life-long learning while allowing that creativity to shine. The package label indicating classic LEGO is suited for ages 4-99+ is testament to not only its versatility as a construction toy, but as the world’s most popular system for creative play becoming ‘an education tool for developing creativity and problem-solving ability’. This among many other educational benefits highlights LEGO’s use in education as being widely recognised, with the absence of a LEGO set in schools a rarity.

Check out the infographic on this page by Online College that explores the Learning Power of LEGO. And, better yet, if your young ones aren’t already playing around with LEGO during the COVID-19 lockdown or simply after school or over the weekend, now’s your chance – the benefits are clear.