Logo Bolts!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

We're working on a cast!

Today was a great session!

Luke and Zoe learned to use the Lego digital designer today.

The first design challenge was to just build for fun. Zoe chose to build an alien whereas Luke chose to build a tree.

Luke loved the eyes that Zoe added to her design. He also like the textures that she used because she combined both bumpy and smooth pieces. She also added a fireman with a brown coat because her alien was a fire alien.

Zoe loved Luke's tree design because it had branches and different colors. Luke also used a new building technique because he added pieces from below instead of stacking. His tree had opposite branching and Zoe thought it looked like a Palm Tree.

We then took some time to discuss our favorite medical technologies. We made a list of what we liked about each technology.

Zoe liked casts because she wanted to know how to put one one. Luke liked casts because you can add your name to it!

Zoe could not think of what she liked about a wheelchair but Luke knew that he liked electric ones that can move on their own.

Luke liked the fact that ambulances are red and Zoe liked the sounds.

We then shared the things we liked and chose our favorite two technologies. Luke liked a cast and a wheelchair the most and Zoe like the cast and the wheelchair the most too. However, Luke reminded us that he really wanted to learn about cots. Zoe also wanted to learn about cots but she especially liked oxygen tents because her sister needed one when she had the croup.

We then took a break and did a quick build on something healthy. Neither Luke nor Zoe could identify their partner's construction but Luke liked the colors and the mix of textures. Zoe used red, yellow and brown.
Luke's shape was tall and thin and used three colors, gray, white and black.

Zoe then explained that health to her was spaghetti with meatballs and Luke explained that his shape was a tooth brush. They both laughed because their shapes both had to do with mouths.

We then watched a video on how to make a cast to see if this would make us want to learn more about casts.
http://suppliescentral.net/instructions.html

When we finished the video, we were sold. We want to make a lego cast and we will research the important parts of a cast for our next meeting!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Practice Number 2-Working on Medical Devices

Practice was great today! We opened practice with a free build and we reviewed our team norms and construction vocabulary. We reviewed the concept of symmetry, which means that you could fold a design and the two sides would match one another. We also discussed the importance of color because colors can make us think of certain feelings. For example, colors like brown and green make us think of a forest whereas blue and green make us think of the ocean. We also discussed how objects can appear solid because they are made from thick blocks or how objects can appear light because they are made from thin blocks.

During the first build, Luke noticed that Miro placed his light on top of his design so that it would be easy to see. Luke also noticed that Miro successfully integrated two different styles of lego blocks, bionicle and regular.

Miro noticed that Luke used a limited number of colors to make his design and that he liked the empty space. We discussed that empty space is important in a design because it allows light to pass through it and because it allows you to place things inside your design.

We then looked at some medical devices from the Lego. Miro and Luke both correctly identified lots of medical equipment, which started a conversation about what we want to make for our design challenge. The first idea that appeared really exciting was an ambulance.

After this discussion, Luke and Miro worked on designs for a wheel chair. While the boys were building, we talked a little about why someone might be in a wheel chair. The boys said that someone could break a leg, or be born with legs that don't work or you could lose the function of your leg because of a spinal chord injury.

The two constructions were very different form one another, which was exciting. Miro build an awesome wheel chair but the bricks would not allow the wheels to freely spin. We talked about how Miro arrange his blocks differently to allow the wheels to move, which Miro did in no time flat.

Luke's design was limited by the fact that he did not have four wheels. But, Luke made the best of it by designing a ramp for the wheel chair to allow it to slide.

Our next challenge was to build a lego hand. Zoe joined us for this build, which was great because she has fantastic ideas and a positive attitude.

Miro's build was great because it had five different fingers and some of them could slide. The idea of movement was really exciting.

Luke's build was similar to Miro's because Luke had five different fingers but Luke left some legos attached to his design that he did not notice at first. Miro wondered if the additional legos were supposed to represent finger nails. Each of the builders eyes lit up upon the realization that none of them had intentionally added nails to their design. Luke immediately modified his design to include nails.

Zoe's design was the only design to consider a palm. In addition, Zoe focused on the overall shape of the hand and had bricks to suggest fingers.

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At the end of class, we discussed some of the medical problems that interested us so that we could pick a topic for our challenge. We considered the heart, eyes, ears, legs, arms, bones, teeth and our spinal chord. Our homework for next class is to consider which topic we most want to pursue.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Session 1 Reflection

Wow!

Session 1 was fantastic! The builders made two constructions, selected a name and developed some norms around sharing. The builders also started using Lego Digital Designer and watched a youtube video on a Jr. Fll team.

Our first build was a free build. It did not take long for the sound effects to start animating the lego constructions as the builders placed their constructions immediately into their imaginations. Ryan constructed a really cool house shape that was loaded with color and the bricks he chose gave the construction a solid feel.

James constructed a rocket powered ship that was really fun. The other children struggled with whether to make rocket sounds or laser sounds. The ship was composed of three colors and it used a wide variety of bricks to construct interesting shapes and textures.

Luke constructed a bilateral symmetrical shape with wings and lasers. The ship used a variety of narrow bricks and only the colors red and white.

We then met for a few minutes to discuss our name. We considered a handful of names but ultimately decided on lego bolts because it sounded like lightening bolts and we liked the image and energy of lightening bolts.

Our second build was focused on making something that felt fast. Ryan made two designs that have inverse color relationships. This was so cool. Again, he used pretty think bricks to make solidly constructed shapes.