Jr Structural Engineering with Lego

Kids · Learning
Make amazing LEGO® creations! There are no instruction booklets in this class – you will use your imagination to build these structures while learning the engineering behind them. So while your buildings will look cool on the outside, they will be rock-solid on the inside, ready to withstand an onslaught from earthquakes, boulders, and even hurricanes.

Today, we're building with columns (aka, pillars, pilings, stacks of bricks, etc.). It's a simple technique, just stack up those bricks. Columns are, of course, easy to build, so we'll explore what we can do with them. In buildings, they can hold up walls or ceilings. They can be used to raise a whole building up off the ground or to hold up the span of the bridge. People and animals can walk beneath a structure that is raised on columns. Water can flow around columns. Mostly importantly, they give the builder some height while using way fewer bricks. Columns do come with a cost to your building's lateral strength (side-to-side strength).
Audience: Kids
Supplies:
You may participate with whatever Lego you currently have available at your location. Our instructor will be using our base Lego Kit which consists of 160 2X4 Bricks (one color), 350 2X4 Bricks (another color), and 1 16X32 base plate. Try adding straws, dowels, or cardboard tubes to your home-based creations.

Upcoming Session

March 11, 6 PM EST
For Kids · 45 mins


44 of 150 spots reserved

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Meet Our Instructor

Brenda Taddeo
Coach Brenda is a senior instructor at Ascendly, teaching since 2016. She has become a go-to person in the organization, taking on an expanded role with the onset of COVID-19. Not only has Brenda helped with the transition to online classes, she continues to mentor other instructors as they make the transition to teaching online. Brenda has a degree in interior design and worked in the commercial field of Interior Design in Washington, DC for ten years. She is proud to have worked for several years on the Pentagon Renovation Program. This background gives her a unique position to help teach students about different styles and components of the buildings presented in our class challenges. In addition to teaching Ascendly classes, Brenda homeschools her two kids, plays the flute, loves to read, and teaches classes in a homeschool coop.