Use Of LEGO Research Articles

Use of Lego® to explain genetic variations in type 1 collagen - a pilot study

Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences on calcified tissues ISSN 2052-1219 (online)

Leveraging LEGO® Serious Play® to embrace AI and robots in tourism

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have begun to challenge conventional notions of consumption, production, and management of tourism service offerings. For example, intelligent machines are increasingly being used to handle routine customer enquiries, prepare and serve drinks and food, and monitor and report faults and security breaches (Ivanov, Webster, & Berezina, 2017). However, Murphy, Gretzel, and Pesonen (2019) observe that many tourism businesses still fail to make the most of the available technology. Faced with a plethora of possibilities, tourism operators may find it difficult to decide which technologies to adopt and which to ignore. Equally challenging might be deciding where, when, and how a new technology should be introduced, as well as understanding what its impacts might be for the individual, organisation, and the industry. The situation calls for research methods suitable for addressing forward-looking research questions with complex practical, ethical, and socio-economic implications, including the impacts of automation on customer experience, management, and regulation. Following in the footsteps of Wengel, McIntosh, and Cockburn-Wootten (2016), it can be suggested that serious gaming, in particular a method known as LEGO® Serious Play®, will help tourism researchers and practitioners better navigate and harness the dynamic landscape of emerging technology. As discussed by Peabody and Noyes (2017), LEGO® Serious Play® is a brainstorming method that makes use of LEGO® bricks to facilitate communication, expression, and problem-solving. Through a series of building activities and peer discussions, LEGO® bricks are used to create stories about the intangible world. The purpose is to break free from the constraints of habitual thinking – the focus is not on the actual bricks themselves, but on the stories they tell and the metaphors they convey (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014).

The Use of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to Enable Learning Gain In Professional Actor Training

This reflective paper considers the potential positive and facilitative role of LEGO^® SERIOUS PLAY^® in the active learning environment, not just as a pedagogic tool to enhance and enable student reflection, but also as a method by which to develop engagement and understanding of learning content, through the case studies of undergraduate Acting students at the Guildford School of Acting.

OPTIMALISASI PENGGUNAAN LEGO DALAM PEMBELAJARAN MATEMATIKA SMP UNTUK MENDUKUNG IMPLEMENTASI KURIKULUM 2013

kill about using LEGO in mathematics teaching and learning to mathematics teachers. This conducted into three stages of training and two stages of real teaching. The stages of the training were introducing the use of LEGO in mathematics teaching and learning, designing sets of teaching and learning activities using LEGO as the media, and peer teaching. The real teaching conducted in two stages of three meetings for each stages. Twelve mathematics teachers from five schools of Muhammadiyah in Surakarta were participated in this training. The teachers have technically trained with new experiences using LEGO as media in mathematics learning and have developed five sets of lesson plans for the topics of fractions, sets, proportion, linear equation with one variable, and statistics. The real teaching for the topic of fractions was conducted in two of those five schools. The results indicate the learning activities designed support students understanding and attitude in mathematics.

‘Creative blocs’: action research study on the implementation of Lego as a tool for reflective practice with social care practitioners

The aim of this study is to investigate whether Lego could be used as a tool for reflective practice with social care practitioners (SCPs) and student practitioners. This article outlines an action research study conducted in an institute of higher education in Ireland. Findings from this study suggest that Lego can be used to support student practitioners struggling to make connections between theory and practice and facilitate expression of tacit understandings that can shape practice in welfare services and care environments. Furthermore, the use of Lego provides practitioners with accessible ways of communicating when attempting to engage diverse audiences with students and practitioners in social care settings.

Extending “Lego® My Simplex”

Almost 20 years have passed since Pendegraft described his use of Lego® toys to teach students basic modeling skills and linear programming concepts. Since then, many instructors of operations research (including the author) and their students have benefited from his contribution. In this article, the author describes a series of extensions he has developed since originally implementing Pendegraft’s active learning exercise in the introductory operations courses he teaches. Through these extensions, the author integrates the concepts of sensitivity, integer programming, and LP formulation and extends the modeling experience beyond the original exercise.

Conceptualising plagiarism: using Lego to construct students' understanding of authorship and citation

The transition from further to higher education is marked by a series of challenges for the new student, not least the requirement to learn the discourse of academic practice, and referencing as a part of that. By perceiving what it means to reference, students should also come to understand what it means to write, including the problematic areas of authorship and ownership of ideas. Academic writing and paraphrasing are demanding concepts that require the student writer to enter into the academic discourse and relinquish their hold on the worlds of a text and embrace instead the argument behind them, in a form of ‘language-game’. Taking an interpretative, dialogic approach to referencing, the inherent playfulness of learning is emphasised through the use of Lego, used as a metaphor for the students' construction of meaning and to exemplify the discipline of citation and attribution. This paper outlines a method that metaphorically and literally enables students to construct and make visible the underlying theoretical philosophy of referencing and plagiarism by using Lego as a mode of authorship, in the context of the nature of academic discourse and what it means to write. In addition, the personal, engaging nature of the activity meant that it would be a more memorable activity too.

Do LEGO® Models Aid Reflection in Learning and Teaching Practice?

In this paper we describe the use of LEGO® models within assessment of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) offered at the University of Salford. Within the context of the PGCAP, we model innovative and contextualised assessment strategies for and of learning. We challenge our students, who are teachers in higher education (HE), to think and rethink the assessment they are using with their own students. We help them develop a deeper understanding and experience of good assessment and feedback practice in a wider context while they are assessed as students on the PGCAP. We report on an evaluation of how the LEGO® model activity was used with a cohort of students in the context of the professional discussion assessment. We share the impact it had on reflection and the assessment experience and make recommendations for good practice.

First-Day Strategies for Millennial Students in Introductory Accounting Courses: It's All Fun and Games Until Something Gets Learned

Millennial students often possess characteristics at odds with typical lecture-based approaches to introductory accounting courses. The author introduces an approach for reaching millennial students early in introductory accounting courses in ways that fit millennials’ characteristics. This article describes the use of the board game Monopoly® to motivate demand for accounting information, and the use of LEGO® blocks to demonstrate cost concepts. These approaches allow students to begin the semester by engaging in experiential and social learning, and to discover for themselves the demand for accounting information and basic cost concepts.

Use of LEGO� as a Therapeutic Medium for Improving Social Competence

A repeated-measures, waiting list control design was used to assess efficacy of a social skills intervention for autistic spectrum children focused on individual and group LEGO play. The intervention combined aspects of behavior therapy, peer modeling and naturalistic communication strategies. Close interaction and joint attention to task play an important role in both group and individual therapy activities. The goal of treatment was to improve social competence (SC) which was construed as reflecting three components: (1) motivation to initiate social contact with peers; (2) ability to sustain interaction with peers for a period of time: and (3) overcoming autistic symptoms of aloofness and rigidity. Measures for the first two variables were based on observation of subjects in unstructured situations with peers; and the third variable was assessed using a structured rating scale, the SI subscale of the GARS. Results revealed significant improvement on all three measures at both 12 and 24 weeks with no evidence of gains during the waiting list period. No gender differences were found on outcome, and age of clients was not correlated with outcome. LEGO play appears to be a particularly effective medium for social skills intervention, and other researchers and clinicians are encouraged to attempt replication of this work, as well as to explore use of LEGO in other methodologies, or with different clinical populations.

Teaching introductory Java through LEGO MINDSTORMS models

Innovative teachers are continually looking for creative ideas, both to get their ideas across and to hold the interest of their students. One of the latest trends is the use of LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ kits [9] in various computing courses. These kits allow a wide variety of physical models to be built, some of which may be programmed via the RCX™ processor integrated into them. Using its standard firmware, the RCX device may be programmed through several different specialist languages. However, the additional availability of bytecode-compatible replacement firmware for the RCX makes the use of Java™ as the programming language for it a particularly attractive approach. In this paper, we explore some of the issues associated with choosing to program MINDSTORMS models using Java within the context of an introductory programming course. In particular, we consider the impact on the material that is taught, and the use of an appropriate API to support an objects-early programming style.

Optomechanics with LEGO

The basic elements of a fairly complete optomechanical kit based on the use of LEGO are presented. Taking advantage of the great variety of standard LEGO elements, and adding a few custom components made of Plexiglas, we show how most of the mechanical parts of an optical setup can be built with little effort and at an extremely reduced cost. Several systems and experiments are presented, mainly in the fields of optical filtering and interferometry, to show that the proposed mounts are excellent for didactic purposes and often perfectly suitable even in applied research.