The LEGO experience will comprise about a dozen one-to-two-hour meetings of the faculty listed above with sixteen Honors students. Readings, video viewings, presentations, guest lectures, site visits, and hands-on sessions will serve as catalysts for discussion in the hopes of spurring future research and community connections. Content will include:
Lectures/presentations by faculty and guests on: conceptual art; philosophy; visual-thinking strategies; toy design; LEGO play and its relationship to learning and child development; LEGO design; LEGO as business; LEGO in American culture
Site visits to some of the following: Mall of America LEGO store front; Brick-mania in Northeast Minneapolis, The Children’s Museum, The Works Museum, Leonardo’s Basement, and Snapology
Readings and Viewings: Lego and Philosophy: Constructing Reality Brick-by-Brick; Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry; Beyond the Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary; Abstract: The Art of Design (TV series 2017– ); one of the LEGO movies; one of the LEGO video games
Experiential/Hands-On Sessions: LEGO communication challenge; LEGO as prototyping tool training session; LEGO as prototype-design training session; LEGO instruction-writing training session
At the conclusion of the experience, students will complete a final project, which could take a variety of forms including, but not limited to:
- Using LEGO to build a prototype (for a brand, a new building (like a UMN Welcome Center), an upgrade to a Minneapolis neighborhood park, etc.)
- Creating a set of LEGO-style instructions for something they have created (like a new children’s game or toy, or a model of Northrop Memorial Auditorium)
- Creating a set of lesson plans to include LEGO in a K-12 series of classroom session to teach a certain skill or topic
- Building 3-D figures or examples using LEGO to supplement a research paper or Honors thesis