Sara Willner-Giwerc, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) PhD Candidate, shares her work with the LEGO Build Challenge. Please read below to hear from Sara about her experience.

One of the cool projects I’ve worked on this year is the LEGO Build the Change experience. Build the Change explores important topics related to the environment and society and asks kids to tap into their imaginations and come up with solutions to big problems. The goal of the Build the Change experience is both to inspire kids to learn through play and to provide children with a platform to share their ideas with changemakers. With a focus on climate change and biodiversity, the 2020 Build the Change experience is designed to be completed at home with LEGO bricks and other common materials, and the experience enables LEGO to capture kids’ ideas to shape and deliver key insights to decision-makers globally (without compromising on digital child safety).

As part of the expert working group for Build the Change, I’ve worked alongside designers, innovators, and educators from around the world to think about how we can enable kids at home to tackle large problems. I provided feedback to the amazing development team and brainstormed about future directions for the LEGO Build the Change experience. Tufts CEEO belief and motto that “Kids Can” is a huge part of this project, with a large focus on listening to and valuing the ideas of kids. I’m excited to keep working on this project in 2021 and find more ways to inspire students to build the change through playful learning and to harness the power of children’s ideas to make the world a better place. 

To find out more about Build the Change and/or participate in the experience visit: https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/build-the-change/