CHILDREN'S SUMMER CAMPS:Eager children are learning how to incorporate gears, pulleys and levers into their own Lego designs
THE BIG BLUE boxes brimful of Lego pieces are being plundered by a bunch of enthusiastic children. There are about 20 youngsters ranging in age from six to nine sitting at small desks or on the floor making trucks, cranes and motorised cars from Lego. They are completely engaged in their tasks, sometimes trading tips, other times busy searching for that crucial piece that will make the gears work or the pulley system operate more smoothly.
“I’m making a long truck,” says Brian (9), showing me how the gear cogs touch off each other and connect to a motor to turn the wheels. “I made a Lego car with a boot that opened,” says Daniel (6).
“The hardest part is getting the right Lego pieces,” says Christopher (8), who made a car that could crash into Lego walls.
Last year, Ross and Pauline Maguire started the Lego summer camps, which have since proved very popular. “We ran 18 camps last year and we’ve 24 this year and they are all completely booked out,” says Ross.
The couple began running summer camps out of necessity, says Ross. “I worked as a truck driver and then in IT. I’ve always been into computers, engines and sports cars. My dad was a mechanic. The recession hit and we needed to make money. We saw this in the United States and we’ve been working with Lego Education for two years now.”
Lego Education is an offshoot of the successful Danish toy manufacturer. “It’s all based on educational concepts like engineering, mechanics, physics and robotics,” says Ross. He and Pauline and the other lead instructors receive all their training from Lego Education. “Later this year, I’ll get a master certificate in building Lego,” says Ross.
The children spend the first hour at camp learning a concept and making something by following instructions with a Lego kit with the exact pieces in it. Then, after a short break, they build whatever they want without instructions using Lego from the big blue boxes. They work in pairs which sometimes merge into teams of four. If the camp venue has an outdoor area, they play games outdoors at break time.
Pauline Maguire, who is also a Montessori teacher, says: “It’s great for problem-solving. Each day, they learn a different concept – gears, pulleys, levers – and then they make their own things using the concepts.”
Nora Herron, one of the camp leaders, is a primary school teacher at St Mary’s Boys’ School in Rathmines, Dublin. “These camps give the children great opportunities to build on core maths and science skills.
I’d love to be able to take out a box of Lego in school but I just don’t have the time. It’s great to see such active learning and see how the children are so focused and absorbed in what they are doing. You can see the children who have a talent for building because they are so proud of what they’ve built at the end of the camp.”
There are about nine boys to every girl at camp. Ross Maguire says: “The children who come to our camps don’t want to do hurling and Gaelic, they are kids that just love Lego.”
Pauline adds: “The girls who come are brilliant. They’ll make things like a disco with a rotating disco ball. What we notice is that we adults are far less creative than the children. The children visualise the concepts and then go and build things.”
The Lego used in the summer camps is not available in shops although schools can buy it.
“The universities use these Lego kits to teach robotics to third-level students in Trinity College, University College Dublin and Dublin City University,” says Ross Maguire, who plans to introduce robotics into the summer camps for children aged 10 and over next year.
The camps for five- to 10-year-olds run from Monday to Friday, 10am–2pm, with up to 30 children in a camp. They cost €95 per child, but unfortunately are already booked out for this summer. Put it in your diary for 2012.
Learn It is the provider of Lego Education summer camps. Tel: 01-5240004. See learnit.ie
