Category: Workshops

Our Zoetrope in the UK Kingston Museum

Andy Hoang from Beyond Blocks in Kingston upon Thames in the UK teaches programming and engineering using LEGO and often build models to try and help explain things.

He recently had a lesson to do in Kingston Museum for an exhibition about motion. The exhibition was inspired by the works of Eadward Muybridge, who was born in the town and was beset known for his works photographing movement. His most famous works focus on animal locomotion and he produced over 100,000 images of animals and humans in motion.

To view these pictures like a moving image, you could use a Zootrope to spin the images around while you looked through a slit to see the images. Muybridge also invented a projection device, which was a forerunner of today’s cinema technology.

Andy was looking for something that would really capture the children’s imagination at my LEGO workshop and bring the works of Eadward Muybridge alive for them and so he was absolutely thrilled to find the instructions for a Zoetrope, complete with moving horse images for LEGO on the PV Productions site and for FREE no less!

Beyond Blocks didn’t have the base model that it was build from (LEGO 42082), but they had most of the parts and made do with some bits in Andy’s LEGO collection, but it came out fine. It took around 4 hours to build, most of that time was finding the parts in my LEGO collection but the principle was there, of a rotating device with slits to view from the side.

Everyone absolutely LOVED the model, which formed the centerpiece of the workshop and the children had great fun designing their own animations to go in the machine.

This model couldn’t have been more perfect for this exhibition. It came along at exactly the right time and it was shown in the most appropriate place in the world to pay homage to Eadward Muybridge, possibly it’s most famous user.

Thanks so much PV Productions for making this and for your generosity in sharing it.

Find out more about Beyond Blocks

Workshopaholics!

Sometimes we get the question why we love giving workshops so much. Well… It’s hard to put it into words on paper/screen, but let me try by giving an example.

 

Recently we had the pleasure of giving a STEAM workshop to a group of teachers-to-be, many of whom hardly had any experience with Lego Technic. Although the students didn’t know what to expect, they proved to be very eager builders! During our workshop, all initial awkwardness disappeared and people got really enthusiastic. It’s absolutely great to see how people get absorbed into the workshop and are introduced to the STEAM and SCRUM methods. The best part, though? When people start raving about how they can use the things they have learned in their own practice!

 

STEAM Education

Keep up the fun while learning!
 
As many of you may have already experienced, building GBCs is not just about building a machine, it’s also a lot about technique and physics. Within the GBCs different aspects of physics (eg. forces, torques and gearings) are used to obtain the different modules. To involve people in this extra ‘level’ of the GBCs, we organize STE(A)M (Science, Technology, Engineering, (Arts) and Mathematics) Education Workshops. Depending on the audience (eg. friends, schools, companies), the focus of the workshop shifts to match and optimize both the learning proces and fun!

Check the video below for an example of one of our workshops!

 

GBC STEAM Education Camps – PV-Productions

Youngsters have the future

Great Ball Contraptions are great for learning! These youngster engineers (Diana, Marlon and Joshua) build our GBC 13 Extended Belt Lift – 42042 C Model in  the GBC Workshop and explain how it works. Thanks to the “We Game to Please” Workshop (USA) for sharing the video with us of our workshop in action.

 

Inspired? Get the building instructions and start engineering today.

 

 


Have you also build one of our models yourself?