14 DAY TRIAL // The American space agency and The LEGO Group have recently agreed to cooperate and work together in promoting interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in children.
The agreement was signed this Tuesday, November 2, and is being marked by sending a LEGO space shuttle replica up to the International Space Station (ISS), aboard an actual shuttle.
The six-astronaut crew aboard Discovery is now scheduled to take off on November 4 from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, in what will be the orbiter's final mission.
According to representatives from both organizations, the current arrangement spans 3 years, but parties can decide to extend it if they want to do so. The partnership has been dubbed “Building and Exploring Our Future.”
As part of the efforts, LEGO will release four NASA-inspired products in 2011, as part of the company's popular LEGO CITY line. All of the products will be inspired by space or space exploration.
The new LEGO will vary in terms of complexity, in the sense that they will address a very wide audience. Small children will get a chance to play with pieces of reduced complexity, whereas adult fans will have their hands full with more complex LEGO components.
NASA-inspired education materials will also be included in each of the four new products, officials at the company announced. On the other hand, the American space agency will have to send LEGO sets to the ISS, so that astronauts can demonstrate the difficulties of assembling stuff in microgravity.
“Partnering with The LEGO Group is a perfect fit. We have taken the excitement of NASA's missions and coupled that with kids' love of creating things with the iconic LEGO bricks,” Leland Melvin says.
“These projects not only foster creativity but also instill in the young builders a real sense of the engineering and design principles that NASA uses every day,” adds the NASA official.
“Fun learning activities like these can help inspire kids to become the next generation of explorers,” adds Melvin, who is the associate administrator for education at the space agency.
“The LEGO Group's purpose is to inspire children to think creatively, reason systematically and release their potential to shape their own future,” adds the president of LEGO Education North America, Stephan Turnipseed.
“The partnership with NASA provides us a unique opportunity to fulfill our purpose while expanding the imaginations of children around the world. A child who plays with LEGO bricks today can become the NASA astronaut or engineer of tomorrow,” he concludes.