Lego Science

We recently began a new unit in science where we have the opportunity to study changes on the Earth. We began by studying fast changes on Earth, such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides. Now we are working on learning about slow changes on Earth. These slow changes include weathering, erosion, and deposition. These are three difficult concepts for students to understand, so to help them understand what each step is, we demonstrated these concepts by using Legos!

I had four different Lego "rocks" built up with the same amount of Legos on each "rock". Students were then separated into four different teams and were given the task of breaking apart these Lego rocks. Students began somewhat of a relay race in their teams as they broke apart the rocks one piece at a time. One team member would run to the Lego rock, break off a piece, run back to the team, and deposit it with the team members. This game continued until all of the Lego rock pieces were broken off and there was no longer a Lego rock on the other side of the room. Once teams had all of the rock pieces, they then formed a new Lego rock to finish the relay race. Of course, to make the relay race a little more interesting, I changed it up on them and sometimes said that they had to skip to the Legos, hop to the Legos, walk backwards, etc.

One day we did this relay race in the classroom and another day we did the relay race in the gym. After going through the relay race both days, we discussed each part that they students just demonstrated. As students broke off the Lego rock pieces they were demonstrating weathering, as students brought the rock back to their team they were demonstrating erosion, and as they were building up a new Lego rock they were demonstrating deposition. Students loved participating in this Lego Science and having fun learning about weathering, erosion, and deposition!