LEGO® Education and NASA collaborate on 10-week lesson series for engaging STEAM learning

Through hands-on lessons, students will learn about the Artemis I mission and what it takes to launch a rocket to the Moon while being inspired to explore STEAM careers

Billund, Denmark (June 17, 2021) – Today, LEGO® Education announced a collaboration with NASA on a free digital STEAM learning series that will launch in September 2021. Build to Launch: A STEAM Exploration Series is designed to spark student curiosity and increase engagement in STEAM through the upcoming Artemis I mission. The 10-week series includes interactive episodes and open-ended prompts grouped into three learning themes aligned with the mission: Getting to Space, Testing and Transport, and Working in Space.

Teachers looking to reengage and excite their students in learning as they come back to school this fall can easily implement this standards-based series for grades K-12 into their curriculum. From astronauts to engineers and flight controllers, each interactive and hands-on lesson will highlight and explain careers at NASA to inspire students to see themselves in these roles. Students will work together to solve out-of-this-world problems just like the NASA teams they’re learning about. Throughout the series, students will also follow along and interact with the LEGO® Space Team, featuring LEGO® minifigures as members of the flight and ground crews involved in a typical space mission.

Esben Stærk, president of LEGO Education, said: “We are at a pivotal moment in education, and to rethink how students learn we must provide meaningful, hands-on learning experiences. The LEGO Education and Artemis lesson series creates joyful learning moments and brings STEAM learning to life through the real-world application of space exploration – a topic that evokes curiosity and awe in students of all ages and abilities.”

For real-time engagement, students and teachers can tune into student press conferences hosted on the LEGO Education YouTube channel by LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime minifigures Kate and Kyle as they prepare for the mission as part of the Space Team. Each episode will set up the theme of the next module, and students will be encouraged to submit questions ahead of time for Kate and Kyle and their NASA counterparts to answer.

The lessons were developed in collaboration with NASA to excite teachers and students about STEAM learning and Artemis I, the first in a series of increasingly complex lunar missions that will enable human exploration on and around the Moon where NASA will prepare for eventual human exploration of Mars. During the flight, the uncrewed spacecraft will launch on the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. As students progress through each learning module inspired by this mission, they will experience some of the important jobs leading up to launch which will test their skills like problem solving and collaboration. Students will work hands-on designing and prototyping, iteratively testing, and working together to build and assemble parts much like the stacking of the mission’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

“Every NASA mission requires people from a wide range of STEM careers, skills, backgrounds, and interests. Today’s students are the Artemis Generation – learning about space and the Artemis I mission through hands-on activities will introduce them to the many careers they can pursue. We look forward to their contributions to push the frontiers of scientific research and expand our understanding of the universe,” said Mike Kincaid, Associate Administrator of the Office of STEM Engagement.

The digital learning series will be made available online for free and can easily be adapted for non-tech use with materials available in classrooms everywhere or with LEGO Education sets.

Teachers and parents are invited to sign up to receive more information at LEGOeducation.com/BuildtoLaunch and be notified when the Teacher Resource Guide becomes available before the full experience launches in September 2021.

About Build to Launch: A STEAM Exploration Series

10 weeks of space-themed STEAM curriculum that follows the journey of the LEGO® Space Team as students apply STEAM practices based on educational standards and explore forces and motion, energy transfer, computational thinking, and more
Three lesson themes that are representative of various STEAM careers at NASA and the phases of launch preparation for the Artemis I mission
Interactive episodes where teachers and their students can submit questions to be answered by NASA and animated LEGO® Education minifigures
Open-ended prompts encourage student creativity and engagement through hands-on learning, while offering flexibility for teachers. An additional Teacher Resource Guide will give support to completing the open-ended lessons.

About LEGO Education
LEGO® Education offers hands-on, playful STEAM learning experiences based on the LEGO® system of bricks, hardware, software and content for students and their teachers in early learning, primary, and secondary education as well as through after-school programs and competitions. These solutions create an environment for active, collaborative learning where students build skills for their future, a lifelong love for learning and confidence in their ability to learn and solve problems, setting them up for lifelong success.

About NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is America’s civil space program and the global leader in space exploration. Through the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and build a sustainable presence to eventually send humans to Mars. Through NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, the agency inspires the future STEM workforce to engage in the science, technology, engineering and math that is the foundation of NASA’s mission success.

To learn more about the Artemis mission, visit: https://stem.nasa.gov/artemis/.