Growing up I always had a love for LEGO. There was nothing better than waking up Christmas morning, opening the new LEGO set I had been wanting for months and building it that same day. Working with LEGO not only provided endless hours of building, rebuilding, and imaginative play, but it taught me valuable skills like the ability to follow directions, analyze my work, identify problems, and break a large project into smaller more manageable pieces. This happened without me realizing it; it was so much more than just a lot of fun.

I started at ICS in 2nd grade and graduated in 2014. I am so excited my kids are now attending. ICS did so much for me socially, academically and spiritually, but it also developed in me a love for math and science. Throughout elementary, middle and high school, I was exposed to teachers who loved these subjects and imparted that love to their students. As a father of two amazing boys, I want to make sure they have the same opportunities to fall in love with math and science. Enter: LEGO Club. My hope is that it will give students the opportunity to explore STEAM subjects and to plant a seed of interest.

In the ICS elementary LEGO Club, we will be using LEGO bricks, sensors and motors, paired with simple and intuitive programming software to explore real-world problems and develop working LEGO models to solve those issues. Students will have the opportunity to try multiple solutions and discover what works and what doesn’t. Then as a team, they will communicate the steps they took and what they discovered. Through collaboration and problem-solving, students will have an opportunity to gain hands-on experience addressing real-world issues. LEGO Club will be utilizing the LEGO Education WeDo 2.0 Curriculum to learn how to integrate LEGO bricks, sensors and motors systems with robotic programming software. We are so excited to be launching LEGO Club this year and to build, learn and grow together.

By Alex Baskett, ICS Alum