I can’t think of any toy that lends itself more completely toward the teaching of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math) than LEGO® bricks. Everyone is looking for more ways to teach STEM these days, why not try LEGO STEM? You can do this — and you will be the hero of your school day with these inspired LEGO STEM activities to inspire your kids. I’ve even added LEGO STEAM with art activities to the list.
This huge list of brain-powered LEGO play is organized into categories to help you find what you are looking for super fast. In the years since I originally wrote this post, so much more is available now for each category, because STEM was just becoming a focus area and STEAM hadn’t even been conceived.
Now here we are in 2021 and the importance of science, technology, engineering, art, and math is getting more attention. This is good for us because more awesome bloggers are writing LEGO STEM posts!
Legos lend themselves to learning in so many ways. One of my favorite lessons I’ve ever taught using Lego bricks was actually an art class. When you add art to LEGO STEM you get LEGO STEAM. Art takes all of the other subjects and gives them wings and breath and energy. Creating art does good things to our brains and helps make all of the other brainy subjects more accessible. Therefore, I’ve included LEGO Art ideas on this list.
LEGO STEM: Science
When LEGO Men Fly from Encouraging Moms at Home. Harness the power of Mentos and Diet Coke to send your minifigs into the sky! Video as proof.
Building the Water Cycle with LEGOs from KC Edventures. A very cool flat build of the water cycle with instructions.
LEGO Science Scavenger Hunt from Fun A Day. Science objects to find through an experiment.
LEGO Chemistry Lesson with Student Pages From MIT. These MIT lessons and pages are beautiful!
Explore the Changing Seasons with LEGO with this lesson from Science Sparks.
Build a Lego Solar System from Kitchen Counter Chronicle. Explore the relative size and distance of each planet using this cool LEGO STEM project.
Learning about Insects with Lego from Stir the Wonder. A nice collection of LEGO STEM Activities about bugs.
Photosynthesis Lesson Plans with Student Handouts from MIT.
Lego Electricity Science Experiment from 123Homeschool4Me.
Understanding Air Lesson Plan with Student Handouts from MIT.
LEGO STEM Activities: Technology
Lesson Plans and Worksheets from LEGO and NASA at LEGO Space.
LEGO Robotics Teaching Resources from Texas Tech University.
The 7 Most Ridiculously Advanced Machines Built Out of LEGOS.
Try this Unplugged Lego Coding Activity from Brain Powered Boy.
Build LEGO Mini Tanks with these plans from Encouraging Moms at Home. Add this to any of study of how tanks were invented for a fascinating look at technology development!
Using LEGOs for Engineering
Use these instructions from JK BrickWorks to Build a Working Spirograph Machine.
Play with water and Build a Lego Water Wheel from Frugal Fun for Boys.
Build a Solar Powered LEGO Car with these instructions from Teach Beside Me.
Try Building Water Dams with this water experiment from Little Bins for Little Hands.
A sweet look at different LEGO Rube Goldberg Machines from Brain Power Boy. This post is full of cool videos you can watch with your kids.
LEGO Engineering at LEGO® Engineering If all else falls short of what you need, go to the source!
LEGO STEM: Math
I have a huge, organized list for LEGO Math you will want to check out but I’ve put a few of my favorites in this post too, just to make sure the M in STEM and STEAM are properly represented! This smaller list shows just how many different things you can do when teaching with legos!
Exploring Math and PolyOmino Puzzles from Steam Powered Family.
Counting and Subitizing (counting at a glance) Practice for PRE-K from No Time For Flashcards
Learning Symmetry with LEGOs and Butterflies from Fun At Home With Kids
Getting Ready for Multiplication from Frugal Fun 4 Boys
LEGO Mean Median Mode Range from E is for Explore
Teach Ratios with LEGO Bricks from Tutor House
Pythagorean Theorem with LEGOs (videos and pictures in Spanish, with Printable but self-explanatory).
See 50 Lego Math Ideas for Learning Math with Lego for more!
LEGO STEAM: Lego Art
Teach a LEGO Art class with ideas and lesson plans from my guest post on Word Traveling.
Make LEGO Family Portraits with this idea from Susan Evans.
Try making Lego Star Wars STEAM with these Mosaics from Childhood 101.
The best LEGO STEM Kits
Pretty much any LEGO set ever sold is a LEGO Stem Kit. Legos get kids building, exploring, and creating right out of the box. However, I’ve created a list here of sets that really lend themselves toward taking LEGO STEM to the next level.
Look at this very cool LEGO Technic Hovercraft.
Make robots out of your legos with this LEGO Technic Power Function Accessory box.
Master robot design with the LEGO Master Builder Set (Robot and Micro Designer).
LEGO Wheels from LEGO Education — my kids need this!
Large Building Plates Set from LEGO Education — this is a great value!
A very cool set called LEGO Mindstorms EV3 from LEGO Education.
Our favorite LEGO Kingdoms Chess Set from LEGO Education — we have this and it is a favorite chess set.
LEGO Numbers and Mosaics Duplo from LEGO Education — oh my!
The Best LEGO books for teaching STEM with LEGO Learning
A discussion about LEGO STEM activities would be incomplete without a list of the fabulous books available. I love these books so much, my kids get new LEGO Books every year for Christmas. These books inspire them to think bigger and better as they build. Check out our more complete awesome list of LEGO books too.
Making Music with NXT (LEGO Mindstorms) by Dr. Damien Kee
The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory: Build, Program, and Experiment with Five Wicked Cool Robots! by Danielle Benedettelli
Getting Started with LEGO Robotics: A Guide for the K-12 Educator
Winning Design!: LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Design Patterns for Fun and Competition by James Jeffrey Trobaugh
Beautiful Lego by Mike Doyle (My boys of all ages continue to be inspired by this book and the next.)
Lego Space: Building the Future by Peter Reid and Tim Goddard
Minifigure Customization: Populate Your World by Jared Burks
And another: Minifigure Customization: Why Live in A Box? by Jared Burks
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this web site.
Love these ideas! And that we have the supplies already 🙂
Happy New Year!
Thank you so much! You have a Happy New year too. 🙂
Hi – Trying to pin this posting, and I’m getting an error message: “Sorry, this site doesn’t allow you to save pins.” Is this intentional?
Thanks,
Pam
No – you are absolutely allowed to save pins. This glitch was caused a few weeks ago with a WordPress update and I have let both my host and Pinterest know but so far no updated patch has been released. I know my blog is not the only one experiencing problems, and at this point, sadly, there is nothing I can do about it. 🙁 Here is a pin of it you can repin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/ARDcsEWpggmXeoxnBsncz1cD5QqJuiCNGzW15O0B-uonErjYmK9BYXw/
Great ideas for lego development. Thanks for these interesting ideas which are useful for my toddlers to build their own projects.