Building creativity through Lego

Recently, the Cambodian Ministry of Education Youths and Sports has been trying to promote the critical thinking, problem solving and creativity skills within secondary school students (more info). At PEPY, we help students develop these skills through providing access to technologies and encouraging independent exploration. Students in the Chanleas Dai junior high school use the Lego Min-Storm during their free time to build up their skills.
During a visit to Chanleas Dai junior high school, I spoke with two grade 7 students, Bunchhea and Vanchar. They sat on the school grounds during their own time, using all different pieces of Lego to build their own robots and set up the program for running it. Bunchea and Vanchea also said:

“We really enjoy in building robots and making them work. This activity really helps us a lot such as, improving my construction skills, thinking skills because we have to think very critically in order to make it work. Sometimes I found it difficult but I want to challenge myself. Lego also helps me to use my time more effectively because if there were no Lego in the junior high school, I might use my time to do less educational things such as playing games or going for a walk with my friends. I think people nowadays use a lot of technology to support their work and learning so it very useful for me to start learning about it. In the future I want to be the engineer who can help people to do their jobs better and faster.”

“We learned faster and better when we do it on our own.”