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Lego Construction Zone



How many teachers get to use Gorilla Glue at work? My office manager is always shaking her head at the receipts I submit for reimbursement. She has given up making sense of what I am buying but she knows the kids are enjoying it. My latest project involved a limited number of items (18 large Lego baseplates, Gorilla glue and a caulk gun) and a lot of STEM integration.
I started by asking a group of 5th-grade math students, how many Lego baseplates we could fit on a wall? These questions were followed up with how much would that cost and what are some compelling reasons for putting Lego baseplates on a wall? The students had to find the answers to these questions by doing research and writing persuasive statements. I had given them a budget of $300 for the project. They created Google slide presentations to convince our principal and custodian that this was a really good idea. (The students didn't know that they had agreed with the idea.) Our custodian did have some concerns about how the baseplates would be installed on the wall. This changed our parameters for the project which was great because it also kept us within our budget. When does that ever happen?
I had done some of my own research. I need to give a big thank you to Diana Rendina and her blog, Renovated Learning for guidance on this project. I knew about how big an area we were going to cover and the approximate cost. I was inspired by the reasons the students gave for why they thought this project was important for our school community. We spent multiple days doing research, creating the presentations and revising our calculations. The students stayed engaged in the process from beginning to the end. I think they especially liked writing their names on the wall that the baseplates covered so that they were a permanent part of the wall.


Students were involved in all stages of this project.



You can view the presentation on this link 

You can view the presentation on this link
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