Here’s an important mission for your 6+ year old’s. They need to help Maria reach ‘Spike Mountain’ for a hike. And how does she get there? Of course in style. Maria is going to ride a Helicopter and reach atop. So, you are welcome to be an engineering genius and construct a robust Helicopter for her to fly to her destination?
Hovering Helicopter
Hovering Helicopter is a lesson module designed under the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Essential unit. It is curated for students Graded 3-5 years of age and the duration of the session is anywhere between 30-45 minutes. Students are required to build and program the Helicopter by making the right choices of choosing appropriate pieces and codes to complete the task.
Materials Needed To Build The Helicopter
- LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Essential set
- LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App on your Smartphones or iPads
- Instruction Booklet that comes along with the set
- LEGO® Education Minifigures Introduction & Bio
- Worksheets for students to fill
Being a Teacher here’s how you can Prepare for The Session
- Read through the Hovering Helicopter lesson in the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App.
- Check the readiness stage and capacity of your students to learn.
- Understand the potential of your children and tailor the session as per their level of grasping potential.
- Educators may even use different methods of teaching with children who are fast learners, as compared to those who have slow-paced learning.
- Time the lesson and try to complete it within 30-45 minutes. However, do not rush through. The objective is to make sure children are following correctly and using the concepts taught during the explainer sessions when it’s their turn to put the Helicopter together.
- Along with coding and assembly, also integrate lessons on arts and focus on building communication skills amongst students.
Engage Your Class (5 minutes)
- Start a conversation with your class about describing how one should ‘make a correct decision’ and what choices should one consider, before making a final decision
- Inculcate the habit of sharing experiences amongst classmates and friends. Ask one child to describe an activity he undertook or a movie scene that he recollects, with another fellow classmate. This will help in seamless communication and children will build confidence.
- Ask children to openly express their feelings in front of others and share their daily life experiences. Then ask them; How do you feel about sharing your experience with your friend? Would you want to share your experience again? The idea is to create a healthy bond for sharing, trusting, and loving others.
- Introduce children to the Hovering Helicopter chapter and guide them on how to go about it.
- Distribute all the materials; including brick sets and devices to each group.
Explore (30 minutes)
- Children are divided into small groups and they figure out how to use the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App to help them through the first challenge: Creating a program and testing it, to start the helicopter
- The next chapter includes; curating a program that makes the helicopter work differently when it is tilted
- Lastly, upgrade the helicopter for Maria’s next adventure
Experience Sharing
- As students choose the coding blocks, they have to use their minds and apply the correct thought process while selecting the code.
- Students also get a chance to share Inspirational Images and a chance to improve their models.
- They come up with stories and narrate to the class what Maria saw on the Mountain, how she felt about it, and what she will be doing next.
The LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Essential unit is used in schools that follow the STEAM Education system with emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math, from early ages. IB Schools in Dubai in the Middle East and other progressive countries adapt to this approach rapidly, in the digitally-savvy 21st century.