4-H After School Adventures enjoy Lego challenges

Over the past three months, 4-H After School Adventures participants have been growing their engineering design skills and fostering creativity through Lego creation challenges once a month in the Tri-County, Lancaster and Kittson Central schools.
In October, we started our sessions with a two-part challenge where youth used Legos to first write out their name flat on their baseplate and then advanced their skills by adjusting their “name tag” to then stand upright off their baseplate.
Moving into November, 4-Hers learned about the engineering design process where they were given a challenge, brainstormed ideas on paper, shared their ideas, built a prototype, compared with their peers and then improved their work. For this month they were challenged to use their imaginations to create their dream bedroom. Identifying necessary items to have a liveable bedroom as their starting point and moving forward from there.
In our last session before our winter break, youth again used the engineering design process to create a maze for a marble. Youth were given the parameters of having at least one dead end and a beginning and an end at the edge of the baseplate. Youth went above and beyond in this challenge creating tunnels, passageways, steps and ridges for their marble to run through to complete their maze. Once students successfully played their maze game and traded with a friend to test someone else’s, we connected mazes on the floor for youth to create a “mega-maze.” See the photos below for the exciting creations our 4-Hers worked to design this fall! We are looking forward to more challenges come spring.
If you are looking to join the 4-H fun, please contact the Kittson County Extension Office at [email protected] or by calling 218-843-3674. Youth can still sign up for spring Adventures sessions through the 4-H office.