SPIKE™ Prime Set

Ideas, the LEGO way!

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

30-45 min.
Beginner
Years 7-9 or Key Stage 3
lesson-header

Lesson plan

1. Prepare

  • Read through the pupil material in the LEGO® Education SPIKE App.
  • If you feel that it's necessary, plan a lesson using the getting started material in the app. This will help to familiarise your pupils with LEGO® Education SPIKE Prime.

2. Engage (5 Min.)

  • Use the ideas in the Ignite a Discussion section below to engage your pupils in a discussion relating 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 that have been provided.
  • Ask your pupils to brainstorm individually for 3 minutes.
  • Allow them 5 minutes to individually sketch or build their ideas.

4. Explain (10 Min.)

  • Allow your pupils 5 minutes to share their ideas within their team.
  • Allow them 5 more minutes to discuss their ideas and to pick the best one.

5. Elaborate (15 Min.)

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

6. Evaluate

  • Give feedback on each pupil's performance.
  • In order to simplify the process, you can use the assessment rubrics that have been provided.

Ignite a Discussion

Start a discussion about things your pupils don't like about their mornings. Talk about things that 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 pupils 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
  • Sticky tape
  • Pencils

Most importantly, encourage your pupils to use their imagination!

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

Coding Tips

Main Program

SPIKE Extra resources Ideas Step03-Program - en-gb

Differentiation

Simplify this lesson by:

  • Narrowing the topic to one specific area (e.g. making breakfast)
  • Running this lesson as a whole class activity rather than a team activity. 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 to evaluate how they've improved from the first session
  • Incorporate the language arts extension

Assessment Opportunities

Teacher Observation Checklist
Establish a scale that suits your needs, for example:

  1. Partially accomplished
  2. Fully accomplished
  3. Overachieved

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

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

Self-Assessment

Have each pupil 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 I’ve selected the one that 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

Language Arts Extension

To incorporate the development of language arts skills:

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

Note: This will require additional time.

Teacher Support

The pupils will:

  • Use an idea generation and creation tool

LEGO® Education SPIKE Prime Set

CAS Computing Progression Pathways

Programming and Development:
Uses a range of operators and expressions e.g. Boolean, and applies them in the context of program control. (AL)

Data and Data Representation:
Selects the appropriate data types. (AL) (AB)

Information Technology:
Designs criteria to critically evaluate the quality of solutions, uses the criteria to identify improvements and can make appropriate refinements to the solution. (EV)

Pupil Material

Student Worksheet

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