LEGO® Education WeDo and Spike™

Programming and Research with LEGO® | The educational materials from LEGO® Education WeDo or Spike™ provide an accessible way to get started in computer science. They specifically encourage creative, independent solutions to given problems. In addition, students can work at their own pace.

LEGO® WeDo | Spike™ is used to spark students’ interest in computer science and introduce them to computational thinking without requiring them to learn a specific programming language. The first step involves identifying problems, followed by deriving, building, and programming appropriate solutions. In this way, students learn in an accessible manner how hardware and software are interconnected through practical examples.
LEGO® WeDo | Spike™ is suitable for use starting in the 3rd grade. There is no upper age limit—even adults enjoy «playing» with LEGO® materials and learning concepts of algorithmic thinking in the process. It can also be used with large groups; the only limitation is the number of material kits available. LEGO® WeDo | Spike™ is recommended for group work in teams of two.

Learners can acquire the following skills:

• They learn how to break a task down into smaller steps to simplify the problem-solving process. 
• You’ll define a sequence of steps to solve a problem. In computer science, defining and organizing these steps usually involves coding or programming.  
• You’ll learn to visualize and describe your ideas using LEGO® bricks.
• You can build models to represent or simulate situations. Although the models are only a representation of reality, they can help illustrate structures, mechanisms, and processes, thereby facilitating an understanding of how things work in the real world. 
• They develop general science competencies: (a) Recognizing | understanding, (b) Independent learning, (c) Evaluating | reflecting, (d) Communicating | collaborating with others, (e) Approaching topics with curiosity, (f) Applying | taking action.

In summary, LEGO® WeDo | Spike™ offers a playful introduction to programming, and its use is intended to bring about a change in the culture of teaching and learning.

Using the GECKO platform, the competency model outlines the skills that both students and teachers can acquire as part of the project.