LEGO Education SPIKE Prime Kit Can Change STEM Mindset

aarmau@gmail.comApril 4, 201912019, Uncategorized

I had the wonderful opportunity to fly to New York for the global campaign and launch of LEGO Education latest product launch called SPIKE Prime.

I am beyond grateful to have been able to spend a day with LEGO Education and people from around the world to hear about the product and spend time exploring and seeing the potential for learning the new SPIKE Prime kit can provide students.

There are plenty of press pieces already published that cover many of the details of sensors, new pieces, and components that you can find here:

And some videos:

So what is the point of my piece?

I want to cover something different. I want to cover mindset, applications of learning, and how this is important for accessibility for students.

First things first, if you head over to the Lessons created for SPIKE you will notice a few things I think make this so helpful for classrooms.

  • Color – As much as we think colors don’t matter, they do. These colors are fresh. The elements are not industrial looking like the EV3. Those that love the look and feel of EV3 and the metallic/steel vibe instantly think of this kit as for young kids and not to be taken seriously. This is a mindset that must be overcome. The colors and new element pieces created for SPIKE entice kids. They make it feel more vibrant. They bring an energy different from the other kits. It feels more playable perhaps, but this will help with the initial phase of students who don’t believe in themselves as being capable of creating to possibly tinker and realize that they can design, code, and build solutions to problems.
  • This final idea I put in bold above is key to this kit moving forward in learning. Again, if you look at the lessons created, I see wheels on display once. YAHOO! 9 times out of 10 when we see or learn or think about building robots we instantly see examples of robots on the move. Wheels, sumobots, and vehicle type designs reign supreme. Yes, I love them and build these all the time myself, but this does not open the minds of those who are intimidated by these designs. What I love about this kit and the lessons is the fact we not building robots for the sake of robots. What has been developed is a kit that helps student work through the engineering process, design thinking, or whatever system thinking you use to help kids solve problems! This is a key skill development. I see this being an opportunity to get away from the conversation that everyone must learn to code to a conversation on how do I solve a problem and actually make a prototype to get the ideas from my head into the world for others to interact with. This is not about coding for future jobs as much as it is about using a platform and thinking skill sets to solve problems. This is vital. This is the most important thinking we must advocate for with students.
  • Quick Success – Another vital aspect of SPIKE that will help teachers is the instant gratification. Anyone who does any teaching with students or adults understand the excitement of an LED turning on or a motor moving. It creates an energy when something works for the first time. SPIKE can engage and help a student feel successful in a quick amount of time that will trigger more interest in learning more advanced functions down the road. In a day and age when many educators are faced with covering “deeper learning” in 40 minutes this is a huge draw for many. Anyone in education realizes how vital getting students engaged and hooked through success is to sustain learning long term.
  • Accessibility vs. Dumbed Down – I have been on some articles and conversation boards that has comments about SPIKE not being good or advanced enough. I have read that there is no need for another product when there is EV3 and WeDo 2.0. I have read that it looks too childlike. Are you serious? If you are someone who feels that they are an expert in EV3 and so are your students, then consider your students blessed to have someone such as yourself who is doing excellent work. We cannot forget that in many places the comfort, leadership, and confidence in this type of learning is not normal. Not everyone has the people or equipment to allow this learning to flourish. The idea that it is not designed for middle school is wrong. We must think bigger picture to accessibility for all. There are still far too many students and educators who fear hands on learning, coding, and physical computing as a natural bridge to learning. Far too many who fear anything that includes the words coding, robots, computer science, STEM, etc. Those of you who already doing advanced work with Mindstorms and other tools cannot forget that many students don’t enter our classrooms with confidence or if it is an elective already look in the mirror and don’t believe they can do any of this and never enroll. Many schools do not have educators who feel confidence in themselves to teach these concepts. I see this kit opening eyes, minds, and hearts to seeing how we can all do this work and infuse it into any discipline.
  • Higher Learning. SPIKE has 11 new pieces allowing users to connect traditional LEGO pieces with Technic to allow new creations to flourish. SPIKE works on Scratch which is very exciting as many are already using Scratch and don’t have to learn a new platform. Python coding is coming in the near future. It is legal with FLL which opens up so much opportunity. I share all of this because we have to think about accessibility for all and SPIKE will allow some existing barriers to be knocked down. It will allow more students no matter who they are, what they look like, or where they come from to feel confident in their work. The only real obstacle is price. This is true for anything in education, but with grants and funding options available this might be a good time to write those grants.

I will continue to keep up the conversations on my excitement for SPIKE. I see huge potential for learning. This mindset is more than just pushing a product like SPIKE. For far too long we have created invisible barriers keeping out students of color, disabilities, and gender from these fields. We must do better. We can do better. We cannot ignore the fact that STEM labs, makerspaces, and computer science spaces are not comfortable for everyone. This is not always intentional, but it happens. It is time we think about accessibility for all. SPIKE is a new product on the market that is aiming to do just that at a grade level (middle school) that needs it most.

Let’s join forces to increase awareness, accessibility, and confidence in ourselves, educators, and our students to take learning to new heights. It is time.

Check out photos from my experience at the launch event on April 2nd.

1 throught on "LEGO Education SPIKE Prime Kit Can Change STEM Mindset"

  1. I like the bold look of your site. I just spent one year learning, playing and growing with the SPIKE Prime … much of it wrestling with the bluetooth connecting problems of the app version. Switched over to the Beta version on web for the past two or three months.
    Keep up the great work brother!
    -Mike Epps
    the middle of NJ

    Reply

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