Gaming Lego in Slovenia

DATE, PARTNER AND COUNTRY: 14. 11. 2022, GoINNO, Slovenia.

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Nº OF DAYS: 1.

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Nº OF PARTICIPANTS IN TOTAL: 23.

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EXPLANATION OF THE ACTIVITIES WITH STUDENTS

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ACTIVITY DONE.

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The main prop for this activity was Lego bricks. The students were divided into 5 groups. Each group got their own set of Lego bricks. To warm up, we first completed short individual Lego challenges, and then, in groups, they devoted themselves to one profession. In the second part, the focus was on group work and a joint product that represented the members of the group.

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TARGET GROUP.

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The group of 23 participants consists of 9th grade students who attend the Brezovica Primary School near Ljubljana. There are more than 100 students in the generation, and students who want additional content in the field of career counseling are included. They are in the last grade of primary school and will continue to their chosen secondary school next school year. During this period, they are thinking intensively about enrolling in high school, so it is an ideal time to test methodologies.

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DIFFICULTIES.

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The biggest and practically the only problem was getting Lego bricks, as our school does not have Lego sets. In general, the integration of Lego blocks in educational purposes is not yet developed in our school system. The game with Lego blocks is usually scheduled during free time (morning care, during breaks, after school during extended stays, etc.).

 

Activities with Lego blocks are usually not directed and guided. Everything is left to the child's imagination. It is precisely because of the aforementioned reasons that Lego sets are difficult to come by. We used basic Legos (with a few mixed in additions) borrowed from our youngest. This was sufficient to carry out the activity.

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SUGGESTIONS.

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With our group, we changed the first part of the methodology and adapted it so that it was more interesting for our participants. We have prepared 25 cards with short Lego challenges. Each participant drew their own challenge, which they did within their group. For example, the challenges were:

- Build something you can find in the kitchen.
- Write your name with bricks.
- Build animals, and your friend guesses which animals they are.
- Build something with only yellow cubes.
- Build a model of a house or apartment.
- Build a vessel that can actually sail on water.
- Assemble our solar system.
- Build something with your eyes closed.
- Build the game "Three in a row" and play it with a friend.
- Build an alien.
- Build your portrait.
- etc.

The second part followed the intended methodology and emphasized teamwork. Each group had a specific profession.

 

At the end, there was a presentation of all the products and an exchange of information.

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REPORT ABOUT STUDENT’S FEEDBACKS

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The students participated with great enthusiasm in the activity with Lego blocks. Lego blocks are very close to most children and represent pleasant childhood memories. They were very creative both in individual challenges and in group work. They said that they had a lot of fun, they only suggested that they could have more time available or to repeatedly bring Legos into our meetings.
 

Lego blocks represented an excellent medium for the cooperation of different individuals, and through this they more successfully established contact with each other and also with the teacher/counsellor.