LEGO MiniMasters 5: Volume Vehicle

Kids love LEGO. Let’s be honest. Also, a lot of kids are home from school right now with parents who need to work remotely at the same time. Finding ways to (quietly) entertain kids is probably going to be difficult for a lot of us. So, with that in mind, when I came up with the idea based on my own kid’s recent “I wanted to do it, so I built it” intensity, I thought, “why not try to come up with a daily challenge while we’re all home?” Basically, if I have to write it up for myself and my kiddo, I then decided, “Well, I might as well share them on GeekMom so that if other parents want to use them, they can.” Using the show LEGO Masters, my previous interactions with LEGO Education, and what I know my kid learns in school as my inspiration, I designed this LEGO MiniMasters post series.

See previous MiniMasters posts:

LEGO MiniMasters 1: Ecosystem

LEGO MiniMasters 2: Community

LEGO MiniMasters 3: Estimation Station

LEGO MiniMasters 4: Area Arena

What Is Volume?

If you need some resources, I found elementary level and middle/high school level sources so that you can refresh your kids’ memories or give them the definitions necessary.

This Splash Learn post gives a great explanation with visuals for younger kids.

This Khan Academy “How We Measure Volume” lesson is pretty fantastic for middle schoolers and up if they need a refresher course.

The super cool thing about using LEGO systems for this challenge is that you can teach the concept of volume to younger kids by having them count the number of bricks they used for the vehicle or the number of a certain sized brick that would fit, such as 4 pegs by 4 pegs.

You can take the suggested “measurements” and adjust according to skill level.

Design a Volume Vehicle: Directions for Kids

With this challenge, you need to design a vehicle out of bricks and Minifigures.

You need to tell a story about the vehicle such as why it was created or what it does that’s special and unique—the story is only limited by your imagination!

Planning Phase for Designing an Area Arena

The first 30 -40 minutes should be your planning phase.

Think about all the things you want your vehicle to have. Including:

• Shape
• Size
• Things you think need to be inside and outside the vehicle to tell your story
• Types of bricks you need
• Characters

Building Phase for the Volume Vehicle

This can take as long as you would like. We suggest 40-80 minutes depending on age and complexity of the vehicle.

Your build should include:

• The characters who use the vehicle
• The things the characters need the vehicle to have
• The vehicle itself
• Anything outside the vehicle that you wanted to include as part of your planning phase

Completing the Volume Vehicle Challenge

Once you finish your Volume Vehicle, find its volume. Make sure to write down all your work and double-check it.

Just because there’s math doesn’t mean that you should make something simple. Challenge yourself because both accuracy and challenging yourself are part of the judging!

Parent Judging Criteria

Creativity/originality:

• Does this look personalized or like a picture your child has seen?
• What makes this vehicle “yours”?
• How is it used?
• How are the inside and outside of the vehicle decorated?

Design:

• Visual
  • How did you use the colors?
  • How do the colors support the story?
  • Does it have unique shapes?
• Construction
  • Was it sturdy enough to make it from the build location to the judging location?
  • Were there any unique construction methods used? (Think, the shape of the vehicle, layout—anything that looks like the construction is creative)
  • Size: the bigger the vehicle, the more the child has to plan

Volume Vehicle elements:

• How did the child find the volume?
• Was the math correct?
• Did the child make the build too simple so the math would be easy (age appropriateness incorporated into parental judging decisions, of course) or did the child challenge themselves?

Storytelling:

• How much of the story can the judge see on their own?
• What is the level of detail
  • If Minifigures are used, are they “showing” part of the story by how they’re posed?
  • Are there interactions between the different elements?

If you’d like to share your child’s builds in the comments—please do! We’d love to see them!