Dirk Kuyt and Lego

This Sunday, Capital Letters had quite a lazy day. Falling victim to Sky’s hype of 29^th November being Super Sunday, an entire day was spent on the sofa drinking copious amounts of tea, and watching (in this order) England take an unbeatable series lead in South Africa, Liverpool win the Merseyside derby, Chelsea beat Arsenal and Barcelona squeeze past Real Madrid.

Anyway, I digress. Mrs. Capital Letters was not impressed with my behaviour, choosing not to mark the day with adjectives such as ‘wonderful’, ‘well earnt’ or ‘quality time with the family’, instead digging out Roget’s book and finding ‘frittered’, ‘unnecessary’ and ‘a waste of a day’.

I digress some more, and I’ll get to the point now - that, whilst South Africa’s lower order collapsed, I stumbled upon an article in the Observer which struck a chord. The UK, apparently, needs to find 600 000 new engineers in the next seven years. Admittedly, the report was published by the Engineering and Technology Board, who can safely be said to have a vested interest in the matter. But it got me thinking, why the apparent dearth of engineering students?

The DCSF is attempting to tackle the shortage through the Science and Innovation Investment Framework, a ten year strategy aimed at (amongst other things) improving the numbers pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) into higher education and increasing the numbers of STEM teachers. As an ICT company RM has a role to play in helping nurture the STEM graduates of the future. Traditional software products such as Multimedia Science School and RM Maths certainly play a part by focussing on topic based learning. RM Maths in particular has had success in the primary SEN environment where the ‘little and often’ approach is most appropriate. But what about the learner who is more hands-on, and struggles with the abstract?

We only very recently uncovered probably the only cross-STEM solution available – Lego Education Centres. The link-up between Lego and Education isn’t immediately apparent, but Lego’s Education division have created a fantastically innovative product which engages pupils’ enthusiasm and desire to learn, whilst at the same time uncovering an aptitude for technology and engineering. Available in a modular format which allows you to pick and choose as many or as few options as you’d like in your centre, it’s probably this very customisability which has seen the earliest adopters being specialist science and technology schools keen to take advantage of the way Lego makes these subjects ‘fun’ – something which can be tricky to do with STEM subjects. The amazing thing is, Education Centres encourage children to take control of their own learning, promoting collaborative working and generating a real sense of purpose and enthusiasm amongst pupils. As Lego is something we all played with as kids, they also reach out to the local community, and are a great resource for feeder primary schools.

With the theme that Lego is fun as it’s more hands-on, I won’t waffle on anymore, but will instead invite you to look at the centres here. If you want the chance to look at the kit yourself, onsite demos are available, just give us a call on 08450 700 300 and we’d be happy to arrange something. To steal some other Danish marketing, they’re probably the best Education Centres in the world.