Lego Imaginnering in Schools

I've always been a huge fan of Lego - indeed I probably have nearly £2,000 worth of models on display in my collection at home (which is still growing). Over the years, I've read about, been trained in and taught a variety of brick-themed projects in school, most notably:

• Lego Therapy for improving social skills;
• Lego 10-bricks for developing maths skills;
• programming Lego WeDo sets for improving programming skills.

What I feel that's been lacking though is actually giving children the opportunities for using Lego to build and play with in less structured, more imaginative experiences.

A few days ago, I found myself visiting a Lego show just about four miles away from school and was captivated by the sheer variety of the builds on display both in their technical structure and creativity - indeed, the winners of Channel 4's Lego Masters were also there presenting some of their work to inspire young builders.

With the increasing trend for schools to become advocates of STEAM subjects, along with this desire to further use Lego to enhance learning, it got me thinking about some tasks children could be given to create and solve using Lego. A quick web search brings up many ideas for very specific building challenges (e.g. to build models of things like a house, animal or rocket), but this brief (at the moment) list should give you an idea where my thinking is going - activities that children can do outside of formal lessons which encourage some form of open-ended creativity and the development of their imagineering skills (to use a Disney phrase):

• Build a marble maze or run (think holding a board at an 80 degree angle for a ball to move down through obstacles).
• Build a series of models using no more than 10 bricks on each.
• Build a mosaic picture.
• Build with a partner, using just one hand each so you have to support/communicate with them.
• Build a bridge between two tables to hold a weight.
• Build a balloon-powered vehicle and race it with others.

Let me know what you think - is Lego imagineering something that schools should be promoting?