Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) is pleased to announce that after taking a year hiatus, Dr. E’s Challenges has returned with two new and exciting challenges. Hearing from teachers, parents, and other educators a need for ideas and inspiration during this time of at-home and remote learning, we developed two LEGO-based challenges for this summer as part of a short pilot series (so let us know if you want more!). As these were both LEGO-based challenges, Dr. E’s Challenges is extremely excited that the team was able to collaborate with LEGO Education and utilize the new LEGO Education Community for hosting the challenges and submissions.

The new Dr. E’s Challenges includes a simple LEGO Brick challenge and a more complex LEGO Robotics challenge. Challenge 1: Animal and Habit runs from July 20 to August 10, 2020 and asks participants to build an animal and its habitat with any LEGO bricks, pieces, or other parts found around the house. Challenge 2: Pet Helper, running from July 27 to August 17, 2020, asks participants to devise a robotic helper for their pet, and they can use any of the LEGO Robotics sets (WeDO, SPIKE Prime, MINDSTORMS, etc) as part of their solution.

Dr. E’s Challenges provides parents and educators with a way of engaging students to produce creative solutions to open-ended problems from anywhere in the world. Adults can try these Dr. E’s Challenges themselves to get familiar with LEGO Education products and how they can be used to enhance education, and then also bring the challenges to their students or own children to see how they solve the open ended problems. The challenges are open to any age, but you must have a LEGO Education Community account to post, so educators and parents are encouraged to submit on behalf of children. Check out the Dr. E’s Challenges page on the LEGO Education Community for more information.

And as always, we look forward to seeing what you create!