KUNA, Idaho — One elementary school is teaching STEM with a unique hands-on experience using Legos.
Hubbard Elementary School held a ribbon cutting for their new STEM lab through a grant from Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
Lisa Gamboa and Nicole Crew are the Club coordinators for the LEGO Explore STEM Lab. Gamboa said, “we went from one small, tiny little classroom to having these rooms with new technology.”
What was once two classrooms and an idea in 2016 is now an innovative Lego-themed robotics explorer lab for students like Bennett and Baylor.
“I just like building them and using them on stuff it's cool and kind of easy,” said Baylor.
The room is filled with new TVs, iPads, and thousands of Legos for students to create with.
Bennett is a 5th grader at Ross Elementary and he was once a student at Hubbard. He says he likes Legos because of the control and creativity.
After the Ribbon cutting attendees got to tour the lab and see different demonstrations from students.
Bennett says, “What I made was the first of the company that made the Lego League and then I showed last year how power works, so I made smokestacks and solar panels.”
Bennett is now a junior mentor at Hubbard and leads Lego Lunchtime at his new school. With this room, students like Bennett will be able to expand on their stem skills through building Lego models and coding.
"It's kind of difficult because you have to know where to move it and how and then with the new Lego room there's a lot of sorted areas so it's easier to find pieces,” says Bennett.
Up to 60 students can utilize the room due to the larger space, giving more students the chance to explore their STEM potential.
