![]() LEGO and NASA still are working on lesson plans for students that will coincide with the work the astronauts perform in space, Biggs said. ![]() "This is showing what happens when we give kids a challenge, give them a tool that allows them to express their response to that challenge, their ideas," Turnipseed said. Melvin and Turnipseed were delighted with the kids' enthusiasm. "You can make anything you want," said Tanner, a nine-year-old who has been building LEGO sets for years. Some made a run at imagining colonies on the moon or Mars. They quickly constructed spacecraft of all shapes, some small with launch facilities, others large replicas of the space shuttle. Visiting LEGO's activity tent at one of the launch viewing sites at Kennedy on Wednesday, kids took to 1 ton of bricks and specialized pieces with barely any instructions. There were plenty of children who thought so, too. "I don't think I'd have been as good an engineer if it had not been for things like LEGO and construction kinds of toys." "LEGO taught me a lot of things about how things are built, what makes sense in terms of structure," said Tani, who brought his daughter to the LEGO activity tent. "Children think with their hands," Turnipseed said.Īstronaut Dan Tani, a veteran shuttle flier and station resident, agreed. Stephan Turnipseed, president of LEGO Education North America, said LEGO is the right partner because the bricks encourage kids to develop their inner engineer. Known as STEM education, the focus has been a priority for the agency throughout this year's "Summer of Innovation." NASA's fundamental goal is to use the partnership to inspire children to learn about science, technical fields, engineering and math. They are expected to stay in their lockers, but astronauts may pull them out during the mission if they have time, said Debbie Biggs, an education specialist for International Space Station National Lab Education Projects. Two small LEGO shuttles are packed inside Discovery for the STS-133 launch to promote the new partnership. 1 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to announce the partnership. Melvin flew two shuttle flights, spending time at the station during both missions. "We're going to use the classroom of space, the International Space Station, to inspire the next generation," said Leland Melvin, associate administrator for NASA Education and a former astronaut. The project is one of the first steps in a three-year partnership between NASA and the Denmark-based The LEGO Group, maker of the ubiquitous plastic bricks that have been covering children's playroom floors for decades. The students will build some of the same things in their own classrooms and see firsthand how differently objects behave in space, where there is practically no gravity, compared to the familiar world of Earth. LEGO bricks aren't just for kids, and they aren't just for Earth, either.Īstronauts on board the International Space Station will build small model spacecraft and working objects in orbit and share the experience with schoolchildren watching on Earth. The company brought in a ton of bricks and let students build their own rocket, launch center and space colony designs. Tanner, 9, takes part in the LEGO activity at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. LEGO's Stephan Turnipseed and NASA's Leland Melvin hold up a NASA logo made of LEGO bricks as they mark a new, 3-year partnership between the toy brick builder and the space agency. LEGO is going to release four NASA-related kits as part of its education agreement with NASA. Leland Melvin, NASA's associate administrator of Education, right, shows off a space shuttle made of LEGO bricks as Stephan Turnipseed, president of LEGO Education North America, looks on. ![]() The activity tent was set up in a launch viewing area at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the event. Students dig into a pile of LEGO bricks to begin constructing their miniaturized visions of the future of space travel. ![]()
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