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Students use Lego pieces to build creativity
Bruce Matlock photo
Cameron Cash inspects (the tiles) on the Space Shuttle project, complete with the Robotic Arm, that he's taken on this week at LEGO Camp, at the American Renaissance Charter Middle School.
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Published: June 24, 2009
With the help of thousands of Lego pieces, Anne Gaither's Inventive Builder Lego and Robotics Camp is giving children the opportunity to piece together anything they can possibly imagine.
Building everything from movie and cartoon characters to fantastic flying machines — and some real-life ones, too — campgoers at American Renaissance Middle School are using Lego pieces as the building blocks of their fledgling creativity.
"It's an educational camp where kids have an opportunity to do lego sets and free build," Gaither said of the weeklong camp, now in its fifth year.
Each day children ages 4-16 can build free sets or work on a single, big building project.
Hundreds of Lego piece-filled plastic tupperware boxes lined the walls, floor and tables. A few of the tubs containing the pieces were so big some of the students' little arms had trouble reaching into the box.
But their imaginations were anything but small.
Chase Kleinhenz, 12, is building a Boeing 787 jet that requires the assembly of 1,197 pieces. He was the first person in camp history to tackle the blue and white flying machine.
"It's never been built at this camp before," he said. "It's kind of cool to know you're the first person to build the set at the camp."
Participants can choose to build anything their heart desires.
Some of the Lego boxes held pieces that, when assembled, can become Harry Potter characters, SpongeBob, motorcycles, the Eiffel tower, planes, Star Wars figures and ships, tractors and a variety of other objects.
Lorenzo Zapata and Micky Shaginaw worked on a Star Wars ship called the Imperial Star Destroyer.
"We like doing different things every year," Lorenzo said. "We like challenging figures."
John Gaither, 12, focused his attention on building Star Wars figure Darth Maul.
He said he wanted to assemble the figure because it was one of the bigger sets, and he enjoys a challenge.
"It's difficult and I like building it," he said of the 1,860-piece figure.
The boys said attending the camp helps them because working with Lego pieces builds their creativity and sharpens visual skills.
"It's expanding our imagination," Chase said.
The Robotics portion of the camp is held on the first floor of the school and is for the older students. During that camp, students learn to build and program robots.
Gaither also holds weeklong camps beginning July 20, July 27 and Aug. 3 at Wake Forest. Visit www.inventivebuilder.com for more information.
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