Celebrating invention, inspiring youth from Lemelson-MIT Educators
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Goal
Students work with time and visual line-of-sight constraints to build identical designs by providing verbal instructions only.
Prep Time (50~60 minutes)
Assemble two identical sets of 5-10 miscellaneous Lego parts into sandwich sized storage bags. One set of bags for each pair of students. Number each set and place one bag within the other after activity for storage. Below is an example of Lego parts in one bag.
Materials
- Miscellaneous Lego bricks
- Zippered storage bags
- Writing board and markers
- Stopwatch
Procedure
- Divide the class into pairs of students. Describe the importance of giving and receiving verbal cues when collaborating on designs.
- Give each pair of students two storage bags with five to ten matched Lego bricks in each bag. Ask each pair of students to determine who will give design instructions first.
- With the pairs of students sitting back to back, start the first 3-5 minute design activity by asking the student giving instructions first to construct a structure using the pieces from one bag then give verbal instructions to their teammate to replicate the design using pieces from the other bag.
- Stop the design work after 3-5 minutes. Ask student pairs to compare their two designs and report the results. Collect the data from the classroom by a show of the instructors’ hands. Record data (see an example of the data reporting below).
- Switch students who give instructions, design, collect data, and record.
- Compare the results from the two trials. Ask all students to reflect on the comparison. Some suggested reflection questions are:
- Did following verbal instructions get easier with practice?
- Did giving verbal instructions get easier with practice?
- Did a common language develop with practice?
- What else did you observe?
- Does prior Lego experience affect results?
- Did “ease of replication” affect original design?
- How does knowledge you take from this experience shape how you might work with other students?
Resources
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