Timeless and powerful design principles can be learned with simple tools

Thinking that I was taking a week off from the cutting edge of coding and electronics, I prevailed upon Nancy Denman and Jessica Lamarre to borrow their Keva blocks to let the Middle Schoolers play with simple pine planks to see what they might construct.

Sure enough, stop the presses. I was caught unawares.
The booklet that comes with the Keva blocks was worth a thousand words, of course, and the most thoughtful of our compadres took a moment to look at and read the simple booklet before proceeding. That was their success.

Come to find out, Keva blocks teach simple but profound concepts of design and construction. A tightly webbed inter-locking of the bricks achieves enormous stability and firmness.

Check it out for yourself:

In addition, we always host a Take Apart Table that encourages teens to dig under the surface and deconstruct the way electronic toys work.

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LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

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