TMCnet News

Montour Elementary School Opens New Makerspace Powered By LEGO® Education Solutions
[February 22, 2018]

Montour Elementary School Opens New Makerspace Powered By LEGO® Education Solutions


Montour Elementary School (K-4) is proud to announce that today it will open the world's first Brick Makerspace powered by LEGO® Education solutions. The Brick Makerspace at Montour Elementary School is a learner-centered space giving students opportunities to design, make, and think creatively.

"Supporting Montour Elementary School's new Brick Makerspace with our LEGO Education solutions is a natural collaboration as we share the same priorities of student-centered learning and the dedication to sparking and engaging the innate curiosity of every student with hands-on playful learning tools," said Silver McDonald, Head of LEGO Education North America. "We look forward to seeing what the students using the new space will imagine, build and create for years to come, and how the 21st Century Skills they are acquiring will inspire and equip them for their future careers."

The new makerspace will focus on enhancing children's spatial, fine motor, social, language and creative skills through activities using a variety of LEGO Education solutions including LEGO Education WeDo 2.0, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3, LEGO Education Simple and Powered Machines, and more. These solutions will also help students learn important lessons in science, technology, art, math, language arts, architecture and engineering. In addition, the new LEGO Education Maker activities will be utilized throughout the experience. The school hopes to inspire students to design and make amazing creations at each of the following stations: Animation Studio, Library, Test Track, Architecture, Engineering and Collaborative Building Center.



"At Montour, we like to use the learning terms "hands-on, minds-on" for tactile educational activities that spark motivation and excitement. The new Brick Makerspace powered by LEGO Education solutions is certainly an inspiring environment where our kids can imagine, design, create, and share ideas with one another. The interplay of imagination and education is really what makes this space so special," said Dr. Christopher Stone, Superintendent of Montour School District.

The room concept was the creation of Jason Burik, Co-Principal at Montour Elementary School and Justin Aglio, Director of Academic Achievement and Innovation for the Montour School District. The construction of the makerspace was a collaborative effort between Montour students, parents, teachers, administrators, LEGO Education, Carnegie Mellon University, Barnes and Noble and Parkway West Career and Technology Center.


Jason Burik and Jason Shoaf, Co-Principals at Montour Elementary School are excited about the support of LEGO Education. Burik is a world-renowned LEGO artist who has created LEGO masterpieces for Google (News - Alert), Stanford University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Cisco, Nationwide Insurance, NCAA, NFL, MLB, and NHL professional sports teams. Shoaf is a maker at heart and has always enjoyed learning through the connection of kinesthetic movement. "LEGO and making has always been a passion of ours, and now with the assistance of LEGO Education, we are able to combine the two and provide students a unique and engaging learning experience," said Burik and Shoaf.

About Montour School District:
The Montour School District is a Student-Centered...Future-Focused district, located in the greater Pittsburgh Region, serving approximately 3,000 students in grades K-12. The district is a member of the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools and Remake Learning Network. Montour has been recognized as one of "30 Districts Worth Visiting" in America and "Cool Schools" to follow on Twitter (News - Alert) by the organization Getting Smart. Montour is also a Schools That Can Innovative Partner and a Certified Common Sense School District.


[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]