SPIKE™ Prime Set

Ideas, the LEGO way!

Use LEGO bricks as a unique way to generate creative ideas.

30-45 min.
Beginner
Year 5 to 8
lesson-header

Lesson plan

1. Prepare

  • Read through the student material in the LEGO® Education SPIKE App.
  • If you feel it's needed, plan a lesson using the getting started material in the app. This will help familiarize your students with LEGO® Education SPIKE Prime.

2. Engage (5 Min.)

  • Use the ideas in the Ignite a Discussion section below to engage your students in a discussion related to this lesson.
  • Use the video to explain the lesson.

3. Explore (8 Min.)

  • Explain how to use the Hub as a countdown clock using the 3- and 5-minute programs provided.
  • Ask your students to brainstorm individually for 3 minutes.
  • Give them 5 minutes to individually sketch or build their ideas.

4. Explain (10 Min.)

  • Give your students 5 minutes to share their ideas within their teams.
  • Give them 5 more minutes to discuss their ideas and pick the best one.

5. Elaborate (15 Min.)

  • Give each team 5 minutes to build their chosen idea.
  • Make sure they understand that their build doesn't have to work. It's just a concept.
  • Have each team make a video explaining their idea.
  • Don't forget to leave some time for cleanup.

6. Evaluate

  • Give feedback on each student's performance.
  • You can use the assessment rubrics provided to simplify the process.

Ignite a Discussion

Start a discussion about what your students don't like about their mornings. Talk about things they could improve, like:

  • How their alarm wakes them up
  • How they make breakfast
  • How they brush their teeth
  • How get dressed

Hint: Use the keywords "automated breakfast" to find online videos to stimulate their thought process.

Have your students watch this video to see what they're about to do.

lesson-header

Building Tips

Prepare Extra Materials
Providing the following materials could be helpful during the brainstorming session:

  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Pencils

Most importantly, encourage your students to use their imaginations!

Combine with LEGO Bricks
Make sure your students understand that they can use these materials in combination with the LEGO bricks, as demonstrated in the video.

Coding Tips

Main Program

SPIKE Extra resources Ideas Step03-Program - en-au

Possible Solution

SPIKE Extra resources Ideas Teacher Solution - en-au

Differentiation

Simplify this lesson by:

  • Narrowing the topic to one specific area (e.g., making breakfast).
  • Running this lesson as a large group (i.e., the whole class) instead of in teams. This will make it easier to manage timing between the steps.
  • Instead of using the Hub and programs, manage time in a different way (e.g., stopwatch, timer, clock).

Take this lesson to the next level by:

  • Facilitating a proper sharing session as a class. This will encourage everyone's participation and level up the quality of ideas.
  • Have a second brainstorming session on another day and evaluate with your students how they've improved from the first session.
  • Incorporate the language arts extension.

Assessment Opportunities

Teacher Observation Checklist
Create a scale that matches your needs, for example:

  1. Partially accomplished
  2. Fully accomplished
  3. Overachieved

Use the following success criteria to evaluate your students' progress:

  • Students generated multiple ideas about a topic.
  • Students used various brainstorming materials to help them through the process.
  • Students can select ideas according to specific criteria and describe them to peers.

Self-Assessment

Have each student choose the brick that they feel best represents their performance.

  • Blue: I've generated lots of ideas for improving my morning routine.
  • Yellow: I've participated in a discussion about everyone's ideas and selected the one I thought was best.
  • Violet: I've used a quick build to describe my idea and demonstrate its principles.

Peer-Assessment
Encourage your pupils to provide feedback to one another by:

  • Having one pupil use the coloured brick scale above to score another pupil’s performance
  • Asking them to present constructive feedback to one another so that they can improve their group’s performance during the next lesson
student-09

Language Arts Extension

To incorporate language arts skills development:

  • Have your students use sketches, mock-ups, or other media to present the ideas they've produced during their brainstorming.
  • Ask each student to hand in a creative document in which they describe their best idea.

Note: This will make for a longer lesson.

Teacher Support

Students will:

  • Use an idea generation and creation tool

Australian Curriculum: Technologies
ACTDIP017
Define problems in terms of data and functional requirements drawing on previously solved problems
ACTDIP019
Design, modify and follow simple algorithms involving sequences of steps, branching, and iteration (repetition)
ACTDIP030
Implement and modify programs with user interfaces involving branching, iteration and functions in a general-purpose programming language

Pupil Material

Student Worksheet

Download, view or share as an online HTML page or a printable PDF.