The Education arm of the Lego Group has launched a new STEAM learning package designed to give kids of all abilities more coding confidence. The Spike Prime set includes hundreds of Lego bricks, sensors and motors, a programmable multi-port Hub, and a companion app featuring a block-based coding environment.
Lego Education says that the Spike Prime set represents a completely new design, developed for middle schoolers of all learning levels to get hands-on making and coding experience that should help build confidence.
That hands-on projects helps build confidence is confirmed in a new poll from Harris Insights & Analytics, with 93 percent of parents agreeing that a hands-on approach to education helps children retain knowledge.
Unfortunately, only 40 percent of teachers polled said that students get enough time for such things during a school day. So Lego Education is providing a "Confidence in Learning" toolkit and workshops to schools around the world to help teachers looking to incorporate more hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) learning into lessons.
"We are seeing a challenge globally in middle school children, typically aged 11-14," said Lego Education's Esben Stærk Jørgensen. "At that age, children start losing their confidence in learning. The Confidence Poll data shows that most students say if they failed at something once, they don't want to try again."
Lego Education says that the Spike Prime set and the lessons included in the Spike app are designed to encourage kids to experiment with different solutions and try new approaches, with the goal of helping them become more confident learners.
Each Prime set includes 523 Lego pieces for project creation, all built around a Hub module and a drag-and-drop coding application based on Scratch. The Spike Prime set will be the first to showcase 11 new Lego System in Play elements, including an integrator brick that allows students to expand into new creative territory via Lego Technic and Lego system platforms.
The Spike Prime set is up for pre-order from today for US$329.95, with availability in all markets expected in August. The video below has more.
Source: Lego Education