Lego and earthquakes
4 oktober 2023
Our third day in Macerata started with a competitive baseball match between the Italians and the Dutch pupils. Competition was fierce and both teams worked incredibly well in what turned out to be a friendly match. Both teams agreed that they both had won and with a number of homeruns on both sides, it was time for us to make the school – run and head off to the classroom, where lessons started with an interesting challenge.
Based on the visit to Caldarola the day before the pupils were challenged to create a earthquake-proof house made of Lego bricks. The Technic Lego skills in the international teams certainly paid off with the designs being well-thought out. Noticeably, a number of the designs looked like examples of what had been seen, with struts of Technic Lego holding up walls, to clever use of pins in between the bricks to unusually designed slanted housing. All proved that the learning had been completed the previous day as all 5 designs managed the stress test and all passed the earthquake simulation set up by year 4 students at the school.
The afternoon session took the students into dream stage and allowed them to use their understanding from both countries to design their dream sustainable city, which could be created from cardboard or drawn. In any case, all designs needed to be created by the international teams of pupils.
