Parents love Kidizens because we have made it fun to learn. Students love Kidizens because they get to interact with their friends solving problems and running a universe made out of LEGOs. My son has done Little League and AYSO but his favorite afterschool activity hands down has been Kidizens. He started at Kidizens in their last LEGO summer camp, which he loved and has almost finished his Fall class. He loves and thrives on the interaction, the planning, discussions, and LEGO building. He’s learning without realizing it and totally enjoying it. Teachers cover in a learn by doing way city planning and infrastructure, flood and sewer management, utilities, police and fire departments, campaigning for city council and elections. You can see the excitement in the kids at the end of class when they assemble to debrief and plan as a group. The teachers have a great way with the kids giving them ample room while also leading them into various learning and planning scenarios. Kidizens was a fabulous experience for our teachers.
They provided the curriculum and resources needed to keep our students engaged over two school days. The students learned all about community development, financing/budgeting, collaboration, communication, negotiation, etc. The list could go on. The cities they built were unique, and there was a lot of room for students to share their diverse strengths. We will definitely be inviting them back for other opportunities. Meeta Gaitonde Program Director, Phillips Brooks School I am grateful to the Kidizens leadership and facilitators for delivering this high quality learning experience to my class. The students’ depth of understanding is far greater because they built it themselves. They had a lot of fun while learning, which is the cornerstone of Kidizens’ offerings. I highly recommend this top-notch company and their workshops and will be using them again in the future. Michelle Yee Teacher, Ohlone Elementary Thank you, for not only having a great program that is fun and full of learning experience about civic life, but also for providing another experience for my son in which he took a risk and found a pot of gold.
I was blown away by how much learning was incorporated – budgets, civics, city planning, making choices, financial choices, marketing, cooperative law making. I was impressed with all the knowledge he came home to share with us about running his city- a flood, a worker strikes, and the issues with building a quidditch field next to the biggest toys r us he’s ever seen! If your kid is a thinker and a problem solver, then they won’t be able to get enough of it. You actually get to make something, and create an entire world! My son attended a week long winter camp at Kidizens and absolutely loved it. He couldn’t wait to get up everyday to go to Kidizens.CAMBRIDGE (CBS) – From the blockbuster movie, to the new Legoland Discovery Center opening in Somerville at the end of the month, the old school children’s toy is a modern day hit. Across the river in Cambridge, there is evidence that Legos are also a hit with researchers. It turns out, the brainiest of the brainiacs at MIT are also Legomaniacs.
Ira Winder is a researcher and project manager of CityScience at the MIT Media Lab. He’s using Legos to study the “walkability” of a city. “The Legos help me express the ideas I’m really passionate about,” he said. He builds Lego models of cities, then projects computer data onto the Legos so researchers can test how changes to infrastructure will affect real life. Winder is currently helping city planners in Australia increase the walkability score of a proposed new city. “We took that goal and we simplified it into a math model and we actually programmed Legos so they could pretend to build their city, prototype it in an environment before they even build it and that informed model would then tell them how their city scores, is it walkable or not,” he said. It’s not just in Ira’s office. Legos litter the landscape here. MIT and Lego have had a partnership since the 1980’s and Winder says the school has about one million Legos to be used for real-life problem solving.
MIT’s motto is “mind and hand.” What’s in Ira Winder’s mind might make cities run better. What’s in his hand might just make it all a little more fun. “We like to think we have these great ideas, but if they’re not approachable,” he said, “then what’s the use of ideas?” MORE LOCAL NEWS FROM CBS BOSTONLego's iconic shape was patented in 1958. Credit: Benjamin Esham / Flickr Creative CommonsWe talk a lot about how inventors have to think outside the box. But in this case, it’s all about thinking outside the brick. Although it’s now a global powerhouse now, Lego’s iconic look comes from humble beginnings.The story started when a failed carpenter – Ole Kirk Kristiansen – who couldn’t get enough wood to make furniture, started using scraps of wood to make toys. Eventually, he invested in an injection molding machine to make plastic toys. The move caused his two older sons to quit the family business, believing that making plastic toys was the wrong direction to take the company in.
Lego patented the plastic brick in 1958, but in the mid 1990s, they were challenged, like many other companies, by the virtual world. Credit: Dan Goodwin / Flickr Creative CommonsDavid Robertson, is a Wharton professor and author of “Brick by Brick.” He says the company made a few missteps during this period.Lego, afraid of the coming digital disruption, put the pressure on designers to focus on the "next great play experience" and it made them stray too far from what they did best. Through the tough period, they learned, almost by accident, that they didn't need to come up with a new, technologically-advanced toy. It turned out that the most popular items during these tough years were Lego Star Wars & Lego Harry Potter – products that had stories attached to them. But those products were only really hits in years when accompanying movies came out – which left plenty of dry years. Lego Harry Potter came with a built-in story. Credit: Alex Eylar / Flickr Creative CommonsLego’s story almost ended in 2003, when they teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.