The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 42 • November 2016
8.95
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in the US
Looking and Learning at LEGO Education
WeDo Robots! Reviewing the New TECHNIC Porsche! Modular Building! Instructions AND MORE!
ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-071-7 ISBN-10: 1-60549-071-7 50895
9 781605 490717
Meet Milo: WeDo’s Spokesbot
We’re In Canada Too! St. John’s, NL
EVANSVILLE, IN Phoenix, AZ
Issue 42 • November 2016
Contents
From the Editor...........................................................2
People
Bruce B. Heller’s LA City Hall..................................................................3 will.i.am gets his own Minifigure!.....................7 Sneak Peek: Benjamin Hann’s Mech Bay............................10
Building
Technic Set Review: Porsche 911 GT3 RS............................................12 Making Modular Castles!....................................19 Making Futuristic Modular Interiors!...........25 Minifigure Customization 101: Minecraft!..................................................................31 You Can Build It: MINI Resurgent and Imperial Star Destroyers.........................36 BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art: MINI Space Shuttle and Crawler.....................40 Godspeed John Glenn.........................................44
Community
The JUNO Diaries: How 3 Minifigures Made it to Jupiter!.....46 Ultimate Builders Competition.......................52 LEGO Education and NASA: Space Explorers!....................................................55 Redoing the WeDo.................................................61 A Talk with Colin Gillespie: Leading LEGO Education Forward............68 Pavel Mikush’s Universal Assistant Robot for People with Visual Disabilities...............72 Community Ads......................................................78 Last Word.....................................................................79 AFOLs.............................................................................80
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From the Editor: Hi! You’re going to be surprised with this issue.
November 2016 Issue 42
There’s a lot more building than usual in this issue, with two modular ideas and two models to build—and the modular articles have build instructions too!
Publisher John Morrow
We also carried over a couple of items from the previous issue that we ran out of space for, and added LEGO Education’s work with NASA to fit with the other articles, as well as the story behind the JUNO minifigures.
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon
LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh
Contributors: Lotte N. Anderson, Michael Brandl, Jared Burks, David Calkins, Steven Canvin, Christopher Deck, Yannick Dupont, Colin Gillespie, Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann, Paul Hartzog, Bruce B. Heller, Michael Kalkwarf, Pavel Mikush, Hanne Hylleberg Ravn, Brian Williams, Tommy Williamson, and Greg Hyland.
Speaking of minifigures, we also talk about another minifigure that was made for a celebrity, will.i.am. He was presented with a figure of himself at a function that you’ll read about here. There’s a review on the Porsche set that came earlier this year, and some other neat articles, so sit down, relax, and then... Build on! Joe Meno, Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at admin@brickjournal.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply. P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website — www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too — http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup — http://www.facebook. com/group.php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader! P.P.P.S. If you want info on a subscription, you can go to: http://twomorrows.com/ index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78&products_id=616 or scan below! Website
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About the Cover: LEGO Education’s Wedo 2.0 is a new way to teach and learn in classrooms. Photo courtesy of LEGO Education. About the Contents Page: Michael Kalkwarf’s castle modules come together to make an outpost. Photo by Erik Bell.
Glossary AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece) MECHA (a large armored robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside) MECH (a large piloted combat robot)
GUNDAM (sci-fi media franchise featuring giant robots or “mecha”) SNOT (Studs Not on Top) POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club) DARK AGES (usually teen years, when you drift away from building) STUDS OUT (building where the studs on bricks face the viewer)
LEGO®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are copyright BrickJournal Media, LLC 2016, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Subscriptions are $55 Economy US, $66 Expedited US, $87 International, or $23.70 Digital Only and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com or payment sent to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. The editorial/advertising office address for BrickJournal is: BrickJournal Editor, 5610 Briar Oak Lane #510, Raleigh, NC 27612 USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. Printed in China. ISSN 1941-2347.
BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
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People
Bruce B. Heller’s
Los Angeles City Hall Article by Joe Meno
For animation artist Bruce B. Heller, it took a movie to get him back into building. The movie? The LEGO Movie, of course. For him, the movie was a love letter to the brick and his childhood, so it wasn’t long before he picked up the bricks again. He also bought the Master Building Academy sets, which validated the building habits Bruce had in childhood, and supplemented them with new ones. He also started collecting at least one set of every theme that was out—and he found so many new elements compared to the time he built in the ’90s. However, the MBA sets played a big part in his current project, Los Angeles City Hall.
Colin Gillespie, President of LEGO Education North America.
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TECHNIC Set Review
Porsche 911 GT3 RS Article by Geoff Gray
Photography by Geoff Gray, Porsche and The LEGO Group
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On April 25, 2016 The LEGO Group announced the upcoming release of set number 42056, the LEGO Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS. The set was officially released for purchase on June 1, 2016 in certain markets, and will be more broadly available in August, 2016. The set was designed by Andrew Woodman and Uwe Wabra (their biographies, along with the full text from an interview provided to BrickJournal by The LEGO Group can be found here). The LEGO Group partnered with Porsche AG to design and release this model. BrickJournal was fortunate enough to receive a review copy of the set from The LEGO Group, and the following article reflects Geoff’s opinion of this set.
Picture of the set’s box. Courtesy of The LEGO Group.
Item Pieces Dimensions Model Scale Price
About the Actual Car To fully appreciate the beauty of this model, you also need to know a little about the real car. While I am not an expert in high end sports cars, I do know a little about them and I love learning more. When I found out that I would be receiving a set to review, I immediately went to Porsche’s website and started digging into the specs and details about the real car itself. Porsche has done a good job of exposing details so that you can drill into several different key design and engineering aspects of the car. For instance, the engine is designed with two oil pumps per cylinder, plus two more at the crankcase. This is so that oil stays flowing to all parts of the engine regardless of the G-forces being applied “especially in the presence of the powerful lateral and longitudinal forces that can be experienced on the racetrack” (http://www.porsche.com/ usa/models/911/911-gt3-rs/drive/dry-sump-lubrication/). Another interesting feature on the car is called Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK). It is a double-clutch transmission that allows the accelerator pedal to remain depressed while the driver shifts gears using buttons on the steering wheel (http:// www.porsche.com/usa/models/911/911-gt3-rs/drive/ porsche-doppelkupplung-pdk/). This feature is especially important to call out since the LEGO model contains the shifters on the steering wheel assembly. Although I doubt I will get a chance to take one of these beauties for a spin on a test track, I can still dream about it. I had a couple of opportunities to drive a 1984 911 Carrera 3.2 Cabriolet (my parents bought one the first year it was released) and I could tell how well it handled. My father had participated in road rallies when he first moved to South Carolina, racing a 1958 Triumph TR-3, so I learned a few tricks about handling and driving from him. Reading about this new machine, I can only imagine how well it must handle.
42056 2704 22.4” by 9.8” by 6.7” ~1:8 $299.00 US
“When we started our initial drafts in 2013, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS project remained top secret. Therefore, I had to build the first LEGO version using photos of the camouflaged prototype of the original from the internet. The first LEGO prototype was ready in a matter of weeks.” Quote taken from an official LEGO interview with Andrew and Uwe.
Pictures taken from the Porsche.com website.
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Building a Star Trek-themed Module
Here is another example of an interior, this time based on Star Trek: The Next Generation. This time, the look is cleaner, without pipes and junctions showing. The wall panels are stacked 1x4 bricks with side studs. 1x8 tiles are placed to make the wall strips. The divider strip is a 1x8 door rail plate, then the 1x4 bricks with side studs are used again. The short walls use 1x2 bricks with side studs and rounded slopes to make the wall strips.
The door is built sideways, using the 5/2 relationship: 5 plates equal 2 studs in width.
The style of dividers were built into the module using slopes and rounded slopes. This also applies to the door wall, which is thick enough to fit the door itself.
The floor panels are only two plates in thickness, with a layer of tiles on top of the bottom 8x8 plate.
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Building
For inspiration for this particular article, I looked to my eldest daughter Branwen, who has been completely taken with all things Minecraft: playing Minecraft, building LEGO Minecraft, and even watching Minecraft videos. She is consumed with the videos as she constantly learns something new about the game that inspires her creativity. Branwen has gravitated to watch one particular presenter, Joseph Garrett, otherwise known as Stampylonghead or Stampy Cat. His videos can be found here: https://www. youtube.com/user/stampylonghead While I know little of Minecraft beyond what I have picked up hearing Garrett’s videos running in the background I do know that he has a very unique Minecraft character, Stampy.
Minifig Customization 101
Minecraft! Article by Jared K. Burks
So I decided to make my daughter a Stampy Cat Minecraft figure and show everyone here how I did it.
What Color is Stampy?
I started this figure by trying to determine what color Stampy is in a LEGO context. As this figure is for my daughter, I showed her all the available color options (Orange, Medium Orange, Bright Light Orange, and Yellow). I was hoping she would choose yellow or orange as there are Minecraft heads available in both of these colors. Branwen decided that Stampy was Bright Light Orange. Luckily there are complete figure parts available in Bright Light Orange, however there isn’t a LEGO Minecraft head available in that color. So I had two options: To paint or to mold and cast a Minecraft head in this color. If you have ever tried to color match LEGO elements, you are aware of just how difficult it can be due to how color changes in different lighting environments. I wanted something more hard wearing as this is for my daughter, so I decided to mold and cast.
Some reference of Stampy Cat.
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You Can Build It MINI Model
MINI Resurgent Star Destroyer and Imperial Star Destroyer Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck Hello everybody, I’m glad to join you again for the newest issue of BrickJournal! Today we want to continue building the vessels from the latest Star Wars movie: The Force Awakens. We already built the new Incom T-70 X-Wing Starfighter some issues ago, and now want to take a look at the new Resurgent Star Destroyer, the First Order’s successor of the infamous Galactic Empire’s Imperial Star Destroyer. From the first moment when the Resurgent Star Destroyer Finalizer crosses the screen, you notice that this must be a new type of Star Destroyer. The intimidating dagger-shape is typical for Star Destroyers, however there are some remarkable differences compared to the Imperial Star Destroyer.
First, there is a kind of ram at the very bow of the ship, an extension which is not part of the dagger-shape. Second, there is a large horizontal gap along the equator of the ship. While the second feature is quite easy to design in brick, it took me a while to figure out how to realize the “ram bow” section, finally ending up with two clickyhinge plates. With almost 3000 meters in length, the Resurgent Star Destroyer is a little less than twice the size of the Imperial Star Destroyer which is 1600 meters long. As a bonus we will build an Imperial Star Destroyer which is to scale with his larger cousin. My favorite part here is the rounded 1x1 plate with open stud. It allows us to attach a 1x2 plate in centered orientation on top of it where the studs of the 1x2 plate resemble the shield generators of the Star Destroyer. I wish you happy building, and see you next time!
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color) Resurgent Star Destroyer
Qty Color Part 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 2654.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 60471.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 30383.dat 4 Dark-Bluish-Gray 4073.dat 3 Trans-Light-Blue 4073.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3710.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3666.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3022.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 2420.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3021.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3021.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray u8200.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3795.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 2419.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3031.dat
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Description Dish 2x2 Hinge Plate 1x2 Locking with Dual Finger on Side Hinge Plate 1x2 Locking with Single Finger On Top Plate 1x1 Round Plate 1x1 Round Plate 1x2 Plate 1x4 Plate 1x6 Plate 2x2 Plate 2x2 Corner Plate 2x3 Plate 2x3 Plate 2x4 with Square Underside Studholes Plate 2x6 Plate 3x6 without Corners Plate 4x4
Qty Color Part 4 Dark-Bluish-Gray 85984.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 32474.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3701.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 32002.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3709b.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3070b.dat 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 43723.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 43723.dat 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 43722.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 43722.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 48183.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 54384.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 54383.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3933.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3934.dat
Description Slope Brick 31 1x2x0.667 Technic Ball Joint with Axlehole Blind Technic Brick 1x4 with Holes Technic Pin 3/4 Technic Plate 2x4 with Holes Tile 1x1 with Groove Wing 2x3 Left Wing 2x3 Left Wing 2x3 Right Wing 2x3 Right Wing 3x4 with 1x2 Cutout with Stud Notches Wing 3x6 Left Wing 3x6 Right Wing 4x8 Left Wing 4x8 Right
Imperial Star Destroyer
Qty Color Part 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 99781.dat 3 Dark-Bluish-Gray 4073.dat 3 Trans-Light-Blue 4073.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 85861.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 4596.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3623.dat
Description Bracket 1x2 1x2 Down Plate 1x1 Round Plate 1x1 Round Plate 1x1 Round with Open Stud Plate 1x2 Plate 1x2 with 3L Extension and Stud Hole Plate 1x3
Qty Color Part 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 3022.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 87580.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 85984.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 92946.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 41770.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 41769.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 43719.dat
Description Plate 2x2 Plate 2x2 with Groove with 1 Center Stud Slope Brick 31 1x2x0.667 Slope Plate 45 2x1 Wing 2x4 Left Wing 2x4 Right Wing 4x4 with 2x2 Cutout
Resurgent Star Destroyer
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Building
Godspeed, John Glenn Article by Brian Williams
On the morning of February 20, 1962, a lone Atlas rocket stood precariously atop Launch Complex-14 at Cape Canaveral Florida, its mirror-like metal skin reflecting the rising Atlantic sun. In the cramped capsule named Friendship 7, sat astronaut John Glenn waiting patiently for the launch order, just as he had done 11 times before over the preceding two months. Delays and setbacks had plagued America’s new space program and everyone knew what was riding on this flight. Russian rhetoric against the United states was escalating. The Kremlin had launched the first man-made satellite in 1957… and then beat America again by launching Yuri Gragarin into Earth orbit in 1961. NASA responded a month later by launching Alan Shepherd into space, but not orbit. So now it was up to John Glenn’s Friendship 7 to prove America could equal the Soviets, and give hope to the free world fighting Communist aggression.
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As a LEGO builder, I’m drawn to historical subjects. Modeling historical events is a great way to learn history. And modeling in LEGO is a great way to share that history with new generations. So when I saw John Wolfe’s Saturn V and crawler transporter a few years back, I decided to build a rocket myself. But which one? There were so many choices. So I started with a little research. The 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing was the big one: the apogee of America’s space efforts and a story that hasn’t been approached since. But a minifig scale Saturn V wouldn’t fit in my room... not to mention the time and brick it would take to build. (Besides, John Wolfe already brings his Saturn V to Chicago area shows!) Of course, the Mercury 7 astronauts represent a fascinating tale that brings back fond memories of the film adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s epic novel The Right Stuff. Watching this again I was struck by the use of real historical footage for the rocket launches—such power and majesty with flames shooting every which way. I also like the retro ’60s charm and styling. The bright red Service and Egress Towers... the gleaming stainless steel were so photogenic. And then there was the person of John Glenn: so energetic and affable. Glenn was already a celebrity before joining the Mercury program when he completed the world’s first supersonic transcontinental flight in 1957. He would later go on to become a United States Senator, and would return to space once again in 1998 to become the oldest man in space too. And so I decided to model Friendship 7 in brick. I worked through several concepts including a maxifig scale Friendship7 Capsule, a large rocket with cutaway interior details, and a micro-scale depiction of the entire Launch Complex 14. Ultimately, I settled on a minifig scale version of the rocket, and just enough of the Launch Complex and Egress Tower to show the flames. I could light the flames with high power commercial LED lamps (meaning very bright), so I used two powerful LED lamps delivering 600 lumens to illuminate the blast exhaust and flame trench from the rocket motors. The flames were built with four layers of transparent bricks. For more detail, I simulated the stainless steel skin on the rocket by having the body panels chromed.
The gantry, which folds up 45 degrees, just like the real one.
To complete the model, I built a scrolling green LED message board on front announcing “God Speed John Glenn - February 20, 1962” reminiscent of Times Square marquee for that day.
Liftoff! Lamps light up the transparent bricks and flames, creating a realistic effect.
The end result is a frozen moment in time where the space race was just beginning, and where hope and determination defined our first steps into the unknown. A closer look at the space capsule, Friendship 7.
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Worksheets from LEGO Education’s space activities.
Interview by Joe Meno Photography and art provided by LEGO Education Lotte N. Anderson has been with the LEGO Group a little more than ten years. She has been in LEGO Education all this time but has been in different positions. She was part of Development and part of developing the WeDo back in 2008-2009 when it was launched. While she has been in the development side, she is now more on the marketing and sales side. BrickJournal was able to chat with her about LEGO Education’s recent work with NASA.
BrickJournal: I wanted to talk with you about how the LEGO Group is working with NASA, so the first question is how long has the company been working with NASA? It seems to be a lot longer than I thought it was, based on some of the information I have read. Lotte: The LEGO Group had worked with NASA on and off for many years. When I started working with NASA from the LEGO side, it was 2010, and before that I was told, NASA was in contact with Tormod Askildsen. I know that Tormod was working with NASA on putting two astronaut minifigures on the Mars Rover in 2004. It was Opportunity—the two minifigures were Biff Sterling and Sandy Moondust, and they were on the Mars Exploration Rover. Before that, and I don’t know if it was directly with NASA on the ISS, they had RCX robots working—I saw a video a long time ago. (See article in this issue - Ed.) The NASA program was in 2010 because LEGO City was launching the newest Space launch, and the fact was that NASA found it much more beneficial to promote education and see how NASA Education and LEGO Education could work on especially making STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education more fun and interesting for younger students. So what we did was at the same time that LEGO City launched their shuttle, we had a program with NASA— we had several of our models sent to the ISS with activities for the astronauts to do, different activities with the models in space tested in microgravity, 55 where the students could test the same model in the classroom.
What are your future plans with LEGO Education and space? One thing with EV3, we have the Space Challenge set, where we worked with NASA on that, with some of the NASA engineers on some of the projects. That is the next direction to go; sometimes what we see is that NASA can make and can sometimes overcomplicate things. That was, to me, what we saw as the hardest problem: to make sure that things were not overcomplicated.
SpaceActivities Age 8+ Teacher’s Notes
In collaboration with NASA
When we want to write different curriculums for the teachers to use in the classroom, we need to make sure that it’s simple and not complicated to get started, and that is sometimes the hardest part with NASA. That’s also why they are working with us, because they realized it was little bit too complicated and advanced and maybe not colorful enough for what they delivered. But it’s hard—as you know, working with NASA has also turned out to very US-oriented. A lot of the major programs have markets—like Russia has their own agency and Europe has the European Space Agency. Japan has their own and so does China. So working with NASA has been very US-based and that is the hard part. We had turned out not to be global. LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the/sont des marques de commerce de/son marcas registradas de LEGO Group. ©2012 The LEGO Group. 190912
MINDSTORMS® GyroBot
In collaboration with NASA
Age 10+ Teacher’s Guide
Well actually, I started seeing stuff from the European Space Agency. They started showing models from their Rosetta program. I take it that you want to expand out internationally. We have some from our European people. I have been working with the European Space Agency and there have been different events going on where we have worked closely with the Danish astronauts in the Scandinavian markets, and they have also been doing some other events around. So it’s whatever shows up. It’s not developing a new set or anything; it’s what comes up, and we may do events together when we can benefit each other in some different areas. There is not a big development thing going on now with the space agencies. Our people in Russia with Roscosmos have done some things. One thing they did where we participated was that we had some LEGO sets from space on the Space Station from NASA…we had a big building event going on in Russia where they actually had the Russian astronaut stream live to talk to the children and answer questions and everything. It’s very cool when you have these possibilities, but it’s very much from one country to another, where they are and what they can do. For you, what was the most fun project you’ve done?
LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the/sont des marques de commerce de/son marcas registradas de LEGO Group. ©2012 The LEGO Group. 190912
SpaceActivities Age 8+ Teacher’s Notes
In collaboration with NASA
I think Phase 2, where we did the robotics part with WeDo and LEGO MINDSTORMS Education. I think it was the most challenging because there were so many things when you send hardware to the Space Station. There were so many things they needed to check and everything and check with the software colors and all this... that was the most challenging part, but the best part. You have no idea how we felt when we saw the video of that MINDSTORMS model in space. For Lee and I who designed the model with Martyn, it was really good. It was hard work and we actually managed to get it out and it was awesome. We wrote special activities and everything for this model, so I would say the robotics part of this with WeDo and MINDSTORMS is of course what I remember most. One day I was working at home and then received an e-mail that said “Greetings from the Space Station”—that is probably what I will remember most! I still keep that e-mail in my mailbox. No one should ever delete that, but it does also say never go public with this. I’m not going to forward this to anyone, but I’m going tell you, I don’t know if you can imagine getting an e-mail that says, “Greetings from space!” That’s really hard to top, that’s all that I can say. And that is because we were told constantly from all these people in Houston where we worked, we were told all the time you can never be in contact directly with any of the astronauts. You’re not allowed to, cannot talk directly to them, blah blah blah… but Don Pettit, he didn’t care. He talked directly to us, so there you go.
LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the/sont des marques de commerce de/son marcas registradas de LEGO Group. ©2011 The LEGO Group. 040906
Teacher’s Guides for the LEGO Education Space activities.
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LEGO Education
The heads of WeDo 2.0 development (from left to right): Yannick Dupont—Senior Content Specialist, Hanne Hylleberg Ravn—Senior Marketing Manager, and Louise Aagard, Concept and Design Lead for WeDo 2.0.
Redoing the WeDo! Interview by Joe Meno Photography provided by LEGO Education 2016 was the year WeDo 2.0 was released by LEGO Education. A generational change from the first WeDo set, WeDo 2.0 was almost completely redesigned. BrickJournal interviewed Hanne Hylleberg Ravn, Senior Marketing Manager and Portfolio Lead on WeDo and Elementary Science; and Yannick Dupont, Senior Educational Specialist on WeDo (responsible for the content in the app) to talk about the redesigned set and software!
BrickJournal: First, let me say I played with the new WeDo 2.0 set and I can tell you that I am very happy with it. Hanne: That’s good! It’s a big improvement on the older version, which was an okay set, except for the fact that I was at a school that didn’t have computers that could run the software. What drove you to go from a USB-tethered system to a Bluetooth system? Hanne: That’s a good question. I think in general and also to set the scene, I don’t know how familiar you are with LEGO Education and how it’s linked to LEGO. WeDo 2.0 is part of LEGO Education, which is a part of the LEGO Group. We are making these solutions for classrooms for teaching within different areas. So, of course, our driver for this one was to develop a solution for elementary science. So to do that, we looked across the whole spectrum of how we make the best user experience for that. One of the parts of that experience is the hardware, but you can see there’s not only the hardware, but the software and also the content, which you could say we put equal weight to. So I think from specifically addressing your questions about the hardware, there were different reasons to go in one direction. One of them was the trend of having tablets and iPads—these things that are get61 ting into more and more schools, especially in an elementary perspective