New Lego Club draws big interest at Oak School
By Chuck Fieldman cfieldman@pioneerlocal.com February 3, 2012 5:20PM
Charlie Boomer assembles several Lego pieces as he gets familiar with the kits. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: April 10, 2012 11:52AM
Either way, Dylan Ross figured Legos would have been part of his afterschool activities Feb. 2.
So, the Oak School third-grader decided he might as well stay at school to take part in the new Lego Club, which had its first session with 25 students and faculty adviser Jeff Mack, a physical education teacher in Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Elementary District 181 who also teaches Lego robotics at College of DuPage.
“I love to build Legos,” Dylan said. “I’m really happy to be here because if I was at home I would still be building Legos, but I would have to do it by myself. It’s more fun here because I get to do it with friends.”
Third-graders at Oak are getting the first crack at the new Lego Club, which is scheduled to meet six times on Thursday afternoons for about 75 minutes. Fourth- and fifth-graders will have opportunities to get involved in upcoming six-week sessions.
“The PTO here was thinking about a Lego Club,” Mack said. “I have a technology background, and I was asked if I wanted to do this. It’s a great chance to get kids together in teams to building something with their hands. We use so much technology with everything; this is a chance for kids to use their hands and minds together.”
Mack said students in the club were split into teams of five each and will building robots.
“Each group will decide on the purpose for its robot,” he said. “It could be a battle robot or one that searches for objects, for example. The kids will build the actual robots, and we’ll build a software program that the robots will be used with.”
Mack said he planned to limit the Lego Club to 20 students per grade level and wasn’t sure he would get that many involved.
“When we had five extra kids apply for this now, I didn’t have the heart to tell any of them they couldn’t do it,” he said. “That much interest tells me kids have the interest in building with their hands and working in teams.”
James Pyle said he joined the Lego Club because it looked like fun.
“I do Legos sometimes at home,” he said. “I like to build things, so I wanted to try this.”
The Lego Club is dominated by boys; only 5 of the 25 students are girls. But that doesn’t seem to bother the girls who joined.
“I just like my Legos,” said Grace Clopton. “I like creating my own things and using my imagination. Most people think Legos are for boys. But that’s wrong.”
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