This review describes the utilization of LEGO bricks, as teaching aids, in chemical education, in four sections, according to their applications. When combined with LEGO Mindstorms ®, LEGO models can be driven by computer programming, allowing the assembling of more complex measuring instruments. Another attractive feature of LEGO-based teaching aid is that they can be disconnected and reused subsequently, implying that their utilization is economical. Thus, assembling LEGO-based measuring instruments can be practiced in a typical classroom or chemistry laboratory. By employing LEGO bricks, the frameworks of measuring instruments can be built without utilizing tools, nails, or adhesives. Allowing students to build their own measuring instruments affords them the opportunity to understand the fundamental physical principles underlying the measuring instruments. LEGO-based models can be employed as frameworks for handmade measuring instruments to illustrate their mechanisms. Although durable molecular model kits are recently available, they are generally expensive. Repeated structures and chemical reactions are generally challenging to demonstrate with typical ball-and-stick molecular model kits because of their expensiveness and frangibility. Further, since the bricks can be easily connected and disconnected, brick-based molecular models can be used to represent chemical compositions and reactions. Since each brick can represent an atom, an ion, or a molecule, linking them together can represent molecular, crystal, and polymeric structures. In chemical education, LEGO bricks and models have been utilized as teaching aids to illustrate chemical structures and reactions, as well as to construct handmade instruments ( Campbell, Miller, Bannon, & Obermaier, 2011). Many students may have already played with the bricks or other interlocking building bricks in their childhood and are, therefore, familiar with them. LEGO teaching aids can entertain students and revitalize classrooms.
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Depending on the type of parts, they are relatively inexpensive and can be distributed to all the students in a classroom. LEGO bricks are resistant to detergents and ethanol, so their surfaces can be disinfected. Each brick is sturdy and elaborate, rendering it safe to utilize. Moreover, since they possess varieties of shapes and colors, they can be employed to build various models. There are lots of reasons to consider applying the bricks for educational purposes. LEGO bricks and LEGO-based models have been employed as teaching aids across a wide range of education fields, from early childhood education to computer programming ( The LEGO ® Education Community is Live!, n.d.). Additionally, the word “LEGO” means “I put together” in Latin ( Lauwaert, 2008).
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The Danish words “leg godt,” meaning “play well,” are the origin of its name ( Lipkowitz, 2018). LEGO ® bricks are an interlocking building plastic-block toys that originated in Denmark and are extensively desired globally. Keywords: hands-on-learning LEGO brick teaching aid Introduction The bricks are suitable for the construction of handmade measuring instruments because of their versatility and computer interface, as well as their non-requirement of special tools. The polymeric structure models are generally difficult to build with typical ball-and-stick type molecular models however, they can be easily built, employing LEGO bricks. Since LEGO bricks possess varieties of shapes and colors, they can be employed to design various teaching aids, including periodic tables, molecular models, polymer structure models, and frameworks for handmade measuring instruments.
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This review describes LEGO-based teaching aids that are easily constructed and may be beneficial to readers, in terms of creating new teaching aids. The focus of this review is the applications of LEGO bricks in teaching chemistry. Moreover, LEGO-based chemistry teaching aids have been vigorously reported by Campbell and coworkers since the late 1990s and are still being persistently reported by several groups. Chemistry teachers have employed bricks to illustrate basic chemical concepts. LEGO ®-based teaching aids satisfy all these requirements. Ideal teaching aids are tools that students can enjoy utilizing, reutilizing, and which can be constructed without employing special tools. Teachers are developing unique teaching aids to attract students to the field of chemistry.