Lego Technic, Mindstorms and First Lego League

[LNC]

My 11yo son is discouraged about his ability to build creatively. He has built many large Technic sets such as the Supercar and the Unimog. However, he has noticed that his friends build creatively huge designs that work. One friend (14yo) was in FLL that wouldn't let kids under 12 join, long story. This friend also took an Engineering enrichment class. It met 2x week online and 2x month in person for 12 months. We thought $400 was too much for a middle school enrichment mostly online class. Do you think creativity in building can be taught or only "caught" by group FLL or a class? We bought 2 Mindstorms books to work through, that he finds somewhat confusing, but we are enouraging him to work through page by page. I bought the new Technic book also.

Any thoughts?

[MSNative]

I don't think you need a class to teach creativity. Does he understand the basic concepts of whatever he is trying to build - levers, gears, motors, programming, etc.? (I'm thinking of NXTs here.) If he doesn't, spend some time teaching him those. If he does, then he just needs to build and fail and start over til it works. That has been one of the hardest things for my kids to understand but once they stopped being afraid to fail, they were able to be much more creative.

 

Couple of sites with cool free projects he can work through:

 

http://www.tryengineering.com - 114 free engineering lesson plans

 

nxtprograms.com - lots of free NXT projects with step by step build and programming directions.

[kwg]

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Master-Builder-Academy-Kit-1-Space-Designer-20200?CMP=KAC-SAHGOOGLEUS&HQS=20200&adtype=pla

 

:lurk5:

I have been considering this for ds10. Not sure if it would help...and also have not used it. I have not bought it because I keep hoping I will see it for a better price.

[LNC]

Thanks so much for the replies. I saved the websites and links. Any other thoughts?

[SFM]

Listening...

[Arcadia]

Do you think creativity in building can be taught or only "caught" by group FLL or a class?

 

FLL teaches teamwork more than creativity.

I do not think a class can "teach" creativity but the sharing of completed projects as well as collaboration to build a project does spark creativity in terms of brainstorming. An informal lego group would reach the same objective.

 

My boys are Lego crazy. I just ordered the Mindstorm but they have plenty of Technics and other Lego pieces. They build all kinds of weird stuff. They get some inspiration from the mocpages which is were people of all ages share their Lego creations.

 

They just made working gumball machines from Legos last month for fun.

[MomatHWTK]

Try this book?

http://www.christianbook.com/the-lego-ideas-book/daniel-lipkowitz/9780756686062/pd/686062?en=google-pla&kw=children-0-20&p=1167941&gclid=CI3-wNSO_7MCFVCd4AoduUQAmQ

[dbmamaz]

ugg, how does FLL teach teamwork? in ours FTC this year it seems the only way it taught teamwork was that some of the kids banded together with their parents to protect each other from the coach?

[angela in ohio]

My personal opinion: The 14 yo thing is ridiculous, first of all. FLL is primarily intended for 4-8 grades, though they allow students up to 14 to stay in. Stacking teams with 12-14 yos is ridiculous. We saw a bit of that at the state competition. At 12-14 yo, they should be transitioning to FTC and FRC. Sometimes the younger kiddos do better. :)

 

I agree that FLL is heavy on teamwork. Our team did teamwork through my oldest dd (16 yo, their head coach with a friend of hers from her FRC team) teaching them how to take roles to complete a teamwork challenge (those are part of the judging at competitions,) structuring practices so that everyone was heard, teaching them the importance of teams, etc. The creativy, though, comes in with the research project and with the robot.

 

We use the classical model, and here's how it applies here, imo: in order to be creative, you have to have the tools to carry out what you imagine. Great artists copied the masters, great authors read the masters, etc. They worked on foundational skills before they were able to put into action the creativity they had. I think the same applies here. Have him continue to work through, page by page, building and learning. FInd tutorials online, watch YouTube videos of what others have built. Eventually, he will have the skill set to build elaborate self-designed systems.

 

It's also personality to some extent, I think. I have a dd who follows the instructions, needs each skill perfectly explained, etc. She is not creative only in the sense of taking other bits and pieces and putting them together. Then I have one who throws away the directions and learns by trial and error. She is nothing but an exhausting bundle of creativity (*grin*.) I can encourage them to develop the other side, too, but they are most successful when I help them honor the way they are wired.

 

Have you thought of starting your own FLL team? I did it this year, and it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be (of course, my 16 yo did much of the work. :D)