What skills will kids gain from the new LEGO® Education sets?

Our new LEGO® Education sets help kids learn essential science skills that set them up for the future.

We know this after spending years developing them with educational experts and testing them with hundreds of kids! More on that later…

In this article, we’re going to dive into exactly which skills these new LEGO sets boost – and how.

Boosting STEM Knowledge

Forgive us, but we’re going to go full ‘Scientific Method’ for this section (well, we are LEGO Education after all...)

- Observation: These sets are based in science.

- Hypothesis: These sets will boost kids’ scientific knowledge as they play.

- Conclusion: Bingo! Watch your kid’s confidence grow as they solve the challenges through play.

We based these sets in nature and in space because we know science-loving kids are most passionate about those topics. And we also know that kids learn best when enjoying themselves.

Each LEGO set comes with multiple, relevant science-based activities, to help kids (literally) build up their knowledge about the things they love most.

For example, can they find a way for the marine biologist to safely tag a whale in the Antarctic? Can they build a camouflaged shelter for the Arctic zoologist to study reindeer?

We even got inspiration from NASA’s Artemis mission for the challenges featured in our Mars-based sets, where you can watch your kid learn about hydroponics and growing plants in space!

By playing with these LEGO sets, they’ll be gaining knowledge about these worlds and the challenges scientists face in those environments.

The skills they learn

As well as providing kids with scientific knowledge, each of these LEGO sets has been designed to boost crucial 21st century skills. The kind that are applicable to almost any challenge a kid will face.

Specifically, the skills we focused on are:

Problem Solving

· Each of the buildable experiments include a built-in ‘problem’. But we don’t give your child the full answer (just a hint!). It’s up to them to solve that problem however they like. (We call it the Build, Solve, Invent play loop and you can read more about it here[JG2] )

· Problem solving is one of the most crucial skills kids can learn, because it’s useful in almost any setting. Or to put it another way: in what career path is problem solving not useful? (We’ll leave that with you.)

Creativity

· The built-in challenges in our ‘Build, Solve, Invent’ play loop don’t have built-in solutions. They can be tackled in endless ways. It’s up to your kid to creatively find their own solution with the extra bricks.

· Because the experiments can be rebuilt over and over, kids get the chance to not only hone their creativity, but expand upon it with every solution and invention they come up with.

Critical Thinking

· We don’t hold kids’ hands with these sets. We give them the problem, they invent the solutions. In testing, kids have repeatedly told us how challenging these sets are… and how the challenge was the best bit!

· By letting them face (and solve) those challenges on their own, we bring out their critical thinking skills – and their confidence. They have to analyze and evaluate the challenges to come up with their own logical solutions.

Resilience

· Try, try and try again – we’ve heard that one before. And every time you try you get a little closer to the answer until finally... they did it! They solved it! How’s that for a learning journey?

· This way of playing builds up resilience; kids’ ability to deal with setbacks and find ways around it.

21st Century Skills

These core skills – Problem Solving, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Resilience – are what are widely referred to as 21st century skills.
Back in the ANCIENT epoch of… the 20th century, educational focus was given to reading, writing and arithmetic. But today, we understand that kids need an updated set of skills to thrive.
These 21st century skills are the kinds of skills that will be essential to them, throughout life.
Hm... isn’t it arithmetic?