Build with Chrome (Lego Building Time!)

If you are like me, you spent countless hours when you were young building with legos. If you were a parent of kids like me, you spent countless hours vacuuming up those little pieces or hunting for them with your bare feet in the middle of the night (ouch!). When I heard about Build with Chrome yesterday, you can understand why my eyes lit up. What is Build with Chrome? It's this:





Awesome, right? So, now what? How does this work in education? Well, let me toss out some ideas.

The building you build is specific to a location on the globe.

  • Architectural or Design Classrooms: As your students build their chosen place, you can have them research what architectural designs are trending in that area of the world and try to design a building that would best fit in that area. There is also a "Build Academy" that is geared towards walking you through the basics and then having you build in more and more complex areas in your quest to become a master builder.
  • Government Classrooms: What is the government control like in that area? What are the rules and regulations surrounding building in that area? If they are building in a rural area, it may not be allowed or socially acceptable to build a tall skyscraper in the middle of town. Some governments may also control the appearance of the building.
  • Math Classrooms: How big can they build their building with only a set amount of bricks (you do have a limit of several thousand)? For geometry, the uses are obvious. Build something that represents different geometric theories. Or have them build 2 dimensional tessalations.
  • Science Classrooms: What is the ecology and climate like in the area that they are building? How does that effect their design? If it is a heavy snow area, then designing a flat roof probably makes very little sense. Nor would it make sense if it rains a lot. The options are limitless!
Anyone else excited? I certainly am! Check it out and let me know what you think or if you'd like help coming up with ways to use it with your own classes.


Check out my first build!

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