Butlers, Constructs, and Art?

When I first started working with LEGO, I always saw it as a robot building tool.  I never really took my thoughts outside the box, either using crafting materials to build with LEGOs, or even just using them for something other than mechanical design work.

It is because of this that Bill and I started classes in LEGO Spin Art. We took cut paper and applied it to a LEGO spinner we designed. From there the campers were able to combine the LEGO's with crafting supplies (such as markers and pens) to make some amazing art.

Art, generally being more organic is very free-form or at least a large portion of the art we see was made by human hands. What makes these spin art designs so unique is the fact that we combined both the artistic side of humans and the precision side of the robots (LEGOs). It is these unique combinations that help encourage our campers to really think outside the box.

Our theme for the day essentially became "Pushing your limits too see what is possible." We gave our campers a ton of time today to brainstorm, plan and plot out their final assembly builds. This began with videos showing assembly lines and ended with real-time practice with their own creations.

While the robots themselves are always amazing and the things our campers create never cease to amaze us; the real spectacle was how the pairs worked together. Nobody had issue working in groups and each pair was able to decide one project they wanted to pursue.

What came of this was partners (who may or may not know each other) working towards each others strengths, asking for help and building as a complete pair.

They didn't care if one was older than the other or one was female or male;  just that you were in it to win it!