Lego workshops at Michigan Science Center teach kids on several levels
Myesha JohnsonDetroit ― A colorful 3-foot LEGO tower was built, and destroyed, by a dozen 7-year-olds Sunday afternoon.
But it wasn't all fun and games.
The Michigan Science Center hosted Lego workshops where kids assembled multi-colored bricks into a tower with professional Lego builders Zach and Tim Croll.
The Crolls, who are father and son, created a 5-by-16-foot long medieval castle and ridge creation with Legos that took them two years. It led them to being featured on the show Lego Masters in 2020.
Tim Croll said the workshop was designed to not only help children design 3D displays, but build tighter relationship with their parents.
"We do these ... workshops as a way to encourage parents to be involved with their kids and find ways to connect. It creates a fun experience that the kid doesn't realize they're being educated or their being taught something. ...
"The education just sneaks under the radar ... engineering, math, science ... skills they learn on how to interact with each other: communication, teamwork, leadership."
On the science stage in the Michigan Science Center, Alex Levin and Colin Lediet, both 8-years-old, assembled about 30 tiny Lego bricks into a diamond shape that would be a part of a tower that about a dozen children helped build.
Colin came to the science center for the first time from Canada with his siblings and said building the tower "is not hard at all."
He followed a Lego brick blueprint, lined his bricks up with it, then stuck them together before he told staff that he added seven diamonds to construct the Lego tower.
Alex, who worked near Colin, said he had a strategy for how he would assemble his diamonds: counting six bricks, attaching them downward to the right of each other and then downward to the left.
Alex said he has a Lego set at his home in Pennsylvania that he created space rovers with so this tower was an easy assembly.
Oliver Lecanu, father to Julia and Roman Lecanu, brought his children and their friend Mick Blessing, 7, who was excited because he never participated in a Lego competition before.
"I built a whole Lego set ... like an airplane. ... It's enormous, it took me a long time," Mick said, referring to his experience with LEGO pieces.
Tim Croll said Lego building utilizes serious play methodology which means the hands-on, interactive play helps kids learn and remember STEM related skills.
"That's the whole purpose or everything that's behind this, is to really use LEGO as a means of teaching that's interactive, that's going to stick with you," Tim Croll said.