Students learn through use of toys

Students from six Iowa middle schools are in Ames today to compete in a contest involving LEGO toys. I-S-U engineering student Jenny Golder is working with the students from Ames and Cedar Rapids. Golder says they use special LEGO kits to build robots.The robots have sensors in them and can react to their environment. This year they’ll be put in an arctic environment. Golder says the students also have to give a presentation on what they’ve learned from the experience.he relates what they’ve done to the real world, and this year they’ll talk about the arctic climate and global warming. She says there’s a purpose to playing with the toys.The exercise gets the students to think about engineering and how it applies to the real world. The teams of 5th and eighth graders worked for eight weeks to put together their robots for the competition.