Main Sections

Do Legos Empower People?

photo by provided Jack Nop explains the process of making stop-motion videos to 8th graders at MUMS. Other pics: Jack Nop, the local, 16-year-old winner of an International Lego Video Contest, highlights aspects of his video "Master of Shadows" to the Phoenix and Ohana Teams during their English classes.

Tuesday September 20, 2016

By Cookie Steponaitis

The MUMS Phoenix and Ohana Teams’ recent inquiry has the students’ imagination at full heightened attention. Pondering the question, “Do Legos Empower People?”, the students are exploring the question through various lens including mathematical thinking, creativity, developmental skills. The students are using different mediums including a video about the artwork of Nathan Sawaya, print Lego advertisements, one from 1981 and the other from 2014, a letter to Lego from a seven-year-old girl named Charlotte Benjamin, and numerous other print, video, and audio texts to present a well-rounded and balanced examination. Students will craft their own claims and later present their stances as specific "characters" from the research sources.
    Kicking it all off is local sixteen-year-old Jack Nop, who is the winner of an International Lego Video contest. Presenting aspects of his International Lego Video “Master of Shadows”, Nop intrigued the students with his expertise, poise, passion and willingness to share his skill set. With recent news coverage showing that from 2008-2014 Lego’s sales have tripled due to the introduction of Lego sets specifically tied to movies, the MUMS students are asked to analyze the impact this new phase of Lego development has on both the market and the creativity of the product’s use. Led by MUMS teachers Eileen Sears and Martha Santa Maria, the exploration will go on for the coming weeks and lead each student to the creation of their own project.
    The Valley Voice salutes all the MUMS students and especially Jack Nop for taking new technology like stop motion videos, a tried and true educational tool Legos and blending them together into a cinematic world where the scripts are never ending and the possibilities only limited by the imagination.

Printer Friendly

Top

Advertisements

Search our Archives