LEGO Uses

Board Games

• Lego can be used to create games such as chess and backgammon. The pieces of the game can be constructed using Lego pieces or, if you'd rather, Lego minifigures can be used. Make sure the pieces are small scale and not too big. Separate the pieces by color or shape. Use your creativity. For the game board, you can use the Lego bricks to construct. Use a standard chess or backgammon board as a guide in making one from the Lego pieces.You can also follow the typical nature of the game board or create your own unique version.

Movies

• Lego movies are popular and fun. You can find various Lego brick films all over the internet. Look on websites like My Lego TV or Brick Films to find ideas for your Lego movie. Lego movies are made by building a Lego film set, positioning the starting scene and placing the camera on a tripod and starting to take pictures. 14 pictures equals one second of film. Move your Lego characters slightly and take pictures again. Continue moving your Lego characters and taking the still images. Expect this to be a long, time consuming process. In some cases, you may want to experiment with the Macro settings of your camera for extreme closeups. Some Lego shots will need this setting while others won't. Open movie editing software on your computer such as Windows Movie Maker and import each picture. Add each picture into a frame and configure the time line. For an animation of this type you want to set the animation to 14 frames per second. You can do this through the Tools tab of your movie editing software. Add music or audio to your new Lego movie to make it more interesting.

Sculpture

• For artists, Legos give a perfect opportunity to be creative. You can build your own sculpture, city, character or robot from Lego bricks. Almost anything can be sculpted using Lego, including buildings, people, movie posters/covers, etc. Make a city scene like that of Venice, a room sized Eiffel tower, or any three dimensional form you want. Make a drawing of your Lego sculpture and tape it to the wall in front of your work space. Slowly fashion the sculpted piece from different Lego colored bricks, brick sizes, pulleys, axles and gears. Make your sculpture as large or small as you want. Add a Lego Mindstorm robotics kit and make your sculpture or character come to life.

Teaching Tool

• Legos can enrich teaching curriculum as well. Students can form abstract designs or kinetic artwork and art teachers can use Legos to demonstrate concepts such as symmetry, proportion and shape. Lego and the Mindstorm robot kits can also be used to teach sciences like Biology by demonstrating concepts like "Form Follows Function," the movements of certain insects and arachnid walkers. Lego can even be used to teach Language concepts when students learn to describe Lego elements by type (brick, axle, gear, beam,) dimension, function or color.