lego_paperdoc - Brickshelf

lego_paperdoc - Brickshelf In 1932, the Great Depression was hurting lots of businesses, especially a small carpentry shop in Billund, Denmark owned by Ole Kirk Christiansen. He was a master carver, and when the Great Depression came around, his business wasn't getting very much money, like many other businesses. (The Ultimate LEGO Book) With the loss of money, Ole Kirk couldn't afford to make things like furniture and dressers to take pictures of for his advertising, so he carved mini versions of his products to save money. These inspired him to start making wooden toys. (Wikipedia) Ole Kirk eventually decided to make nothing but toys. He named his company LEGO?, formed from the Danish phrase, "LEg GOdt," which means, "play well." Later, it was realized that lego is Latin for "I assemble," or "I put together." "Det bedste er ikke for godt," was the motto used by Ole Kirk. It means "Only the best is good enough." Ole Kirk meant it. Once, when Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, Ole Kirk's son, decided to save the company some money by giving some wooden ducks two coats of paint instead of three, Ole got mad and said, "Go and get the ducks immediately, give them their last coat of paint, repack them, and take them back to the station. And do it all yourself – even if it takes you all night!" In 1942, the factory and Ole's life work were destroyed by a fire. He built a much larger factory in just a few months. After World War Two had ended, LEGO? bought the first plastic molding machine in Denmark and started making plastic toys in 1947. Two years later, Godtfred pioneered the first forerunners of Lego bricks, Automatic Binding Bricks. In 1953, Automatic Binding Bricks were renamed "LEGO bricks." (The Ultimate LEGO Book) In Denmark, they are called by their Danish name, "LEGO Mursten." "Mursten" is Danish for "bricks." (Essortment) In 1954, he realized that the toy market had a huge gap, that there was no system of play for children. He realized that 1 the LEGO brick could fill that gap. In 1957, the stud-and-tube coupling system was invented, and in 1958, it was marketed. The patent for the stud-and-tube coupling system, filed in 1958, is the most valuable ever granted. According to The Ultimate LEGO Book, in 1960 the wooden-toy department caught fire, stopping the production of wooden toys. In 1963, acrylnitrile butadiene styrene replaced cellulose acetate as the material used to make bricks because it was more stable, kept its color better, and had greater precision of 0.0002 in or 0.005 mm. By 1966, there were fifty-seven sets and twenty-five vehicles, with a total of 706,000,000 elements produced that year. The Ultimate LEGO Book also states that in 1968, the first LEGOLand? was opened in Billund. Ten years after the beginning of the "System of Play," LEGO? had become one of the world's most well-respected toy companies. (Wikipedia and The Ultimate LEGO Book) In 1973, the familiar LEGO? logo we all know today replaced all the previous logos that LEGO? had used in the past. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Godtfred's son, formulated a concept to introduce "system into the System." Later, this led to the creation of LEGO? themes, such as Space, Castle, and Pirate. (The Ultimate LEGO Book) (Kjeld's last name is misspelled because of an error made on his birth certificate. He never changed it.) (Wikipedia). In 1974, the first LEGO people were introduced. They were soon LEGO?’s best-selling item. Their legs couldn’t move because they weren't made from special pieces like they are today, but were made out of actual pieces with just a few special pieces, so if someone wanted to make them sit, the lower half of their body would have to be re-built. Other elements could attach to their hands. In 1978, the flexible mini figure, the company's second most important design (next to the brick) was introduced. Early in the 1980s, LEGO? started to focus on education. A new division, the 2 Educational Products Division, was set up to make toys for use in schools, kindergartens, and for use by handicapped children. This division is now called LEGO Dacta?. (The Ultimate LEGO Book) Dacta? is derived from the Geek word "didactic" which means "the study of the purpose, means and substance of learning and the learning process." (LEGO? Timeline) In April of 1985, the LEGO Prize was founded. It is an annual international award for exceptional efforts on behalf of children anywhere on Earth. TECHNIC? robots controlled by a computer were launched in schools in 1986. That year, electronic Light and Sound kits were released for the Town and Space kits. At the end of the 1980s, Pirate became the most successful line so far, as of 1999. LEGO? also made new TECHNIC? car lines, and they started making licensed products, starting with high-quality children’s’ clothing. The first official LEGO World Cup building championship was held in 1988, emphasizing LEGO?’s international status. Also in 1988, one of LEGO?’s most useful pieces ever was created, the Brick Separator. It's really a plate separator, and it's easier to separate 2 plates if two are used, with one under the other. LEGO? HQ stayed in Billund, even though most of the company's sales were made outside of Denmark. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, a line of more realistic kits was released. One kit could build a helicopter, a trailer, and a truck from the instructions, but that's nowhere near all of what could be built with the pieces. Duplo Zoo was one of the most successful releases of 1990. Fifteen animal species were made. The idea of the DUPLO Toolo line, launched in 1992, was to give children ages 3 to 6 the chance to make vehicles by using an actual tool, a special screwdriver. When the LEGO TECHNIC? Super Car was released in 1994, LEGO?’s professional model makers built a copy 10 times bigger, using 650,000 bricks. They used 3 bricks to make giant TECHNIC? pieces! The car was unveiled at the "Mondial de l'Automobile 1994" exhibition in Paris. The first pink element was made in 1994. LEGO? planned to open a LEGOLand? park every three years around the earth. It began in Billund in1968, LEGOLand Windsor in England in 1996 (with over one million visitors the first year), and in Carlsbad, California in 1999. System? and TECHNIC? continued developing. In 1997 there were 542 different kits, and 1,997 different pieces. LEGO? started to make books and CD-ROMs. Led by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and his idea of how to develop the play materials' market, and with support from a wish to develop some new areas for the LEGO? Group, LEGO? became one of the world's leading brands for children. One of the most important inventions in 1990s was the internet. LEGO? now has its very own website. In 1997, LEGO?’s first computer game, LEGO Island, was launched and it became a worldwide hit. It sold almost 1,000,000 copies the first year. In 1998, other games were made, like LEGO Loco, LEGO Creator, and LEGO Chess. (The Ultimate LEGO Book) LEGO? has had three money losses in its history. The first was a loss of one billion Danish Krone, the second 1.2 billion, and the third 1.4 billion. The third loss is equal to $23,827,759,104.00 USD. That’s twenty-three thousand, eight-hundred twenty-seven million, seven-hundred fifty-nine thousand, one-hundred and four dollars. (Centaur Communications Ltd., “BRAND MOT”) Now we'll see how LEGO?s are made. LEGO?s start out as tiny pieces of plastic called granules. (The Amazing Redini) They are shipped to silos, like the ones in the Kornmarken factory in Billund, which has 14 silos. These silos can hold 33 tons (30 tonnes) of granules per silo! Then the granules are sent through pipes to big, quiet rooms and into the molding machines where they are molded 4 into plastic LEGO? elements. At Kornmarken, 2 people maintain 64 machines in each of the 12 molding halls. They are helped by maintenance technicians. Depending on the piece, 27-165 tons (25-150 tonnes) of pressure are applied in the molding machines. In the machines, the granules are melted at 428-455 degrees F (220-235 degrees C) and fed to a mold and shaped. The accuracy of the molds is 0.005 mm. Then they're cooled and ejected, which takes 7-10 seconds. Then the pieces are either dropped into boxes or fed into them by mini-conveyer belts. Computer and radio signals from the machines' control panels tell robots guided by grooves in the floor to come and get the full boxes. The complicated machine control panels sense when a box is full, calls a robot, and keeps on making pieces but stops filling a box until an empty one replaces it. The robots take the boxes to the corner of the hall and put the boxes on conveyor belts and takes an empty box to a machine. There aren't usually very many people in the LEGO? factories. The pieces are taken to another factory to have details put on them. Multi-part pieces like mini-figure torsos are snapped together with extreme precision and pressure. (The Ultimate LEGO Book) A giant stamping machine puts decals like faces and numbers onto the pieces that need them. (The Making of a BRICK) These factories have more people than the molding halls. There's an average of one person for every two machines instead of one person for every 32 machines. After the pieces are stamped and put together (depending on what piece it is) they are sent to somewhere else to be packaged. The LEGO? Group has spent a lot of money to buy special machines made by LEGO Engineering in Billund to keep from packaging any piece wrong. An operator feeds elements into vibrators that sort them into different types. He or she also makes sure that the machine is working right. The control panels are controlled by the 5 controller. Boxes called cassettes move along a conveyor belt under some bins. Each bin holds one kind of piece. When a cassette moves under the bin, the right number and type of element is dropped into the cassette. While this is happening, the packing operators fold the boxes, pack the pieces, and look for machine-made errors. The pieces are put into clear displays or bags and put into the boxes. Some pieces, like baseplates, have to be put into the boxes manually by operators. Five operators pack about 500 displays manually an hour. One of these operators visually checks each of the displays. Then the kits are shipped off to the stores where people buy them. (The Ultimate LEGO Book) Next, we'll look at what LEGO?s are used for, and who uses them. LEGO?s are used for making models and building. (Knowledge Context) LEGO?s are used by the Master Builders to make things like Miniland for LEGOLand?. They are used mostly by the fans of LEGO? to play. (The Amazing Redini) They are sometimes used in classrooms by teachers and students. (The Educational Impact of LEGO Dacta Materials.) The LEGO? product designers use LEGO?s to design kits. The artists who draw the instructions use LEGO?s as guides to know what to draw. The people who design the alternate models use LEGO?s to design them. The photographers who take the pictures for the boxes and magazines, such as LEGO magazine and LEGO SHOP@HOME, use LEGO?s to take pictures of. The people who design and film the commercials use LEGO?s to film the commercials and people like Randy Elliot, the penciller and one of the two inkers for the BIONICLE comics, use LEGO?s to know what to draw for LEGO? comics. (LEGO magazine) Teachers and students sometimes use LEGO?s to learn certain things like math and engineering better. (The Educational Impact of LEGO Dacta Materials.) They 6 are also used by the LEGO? Master Builders and the fans of LEGO? all over the world. (The Amazing Redini) Now we’ll find out how popular LEGO? is. LEGO? was named one of the 100 most treasured toys of the past century by Toy Industry Association. It was number nine on the list, with only Slinky?, Tonka Trucks, Monopoly, Yo-Yo, Lincoln Logs, Erector sets, Crayola Crayons and Lionel Trains ahead ”) Thousands of people are in the LEGO of it, Lionel being #1. (Weekly Reader, “Toy Story Club, with more joining everyday. (The Amazing Redini) Over 300,000,000 kids have played with LEGO? bricks. (Rose Displays) Now we’ll see why people like LEGO?s. In his foreword in The Ultimate LEGO Book, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen states, “This book is not about a toy. It is a book about an idea, a set of values, and a long-term commitment to empowering children to use their creativity and build their imagination.” (The Ultimate LEGO Book) In his foreword in 10 COOL LEGO Mindstorms Ultimate Builders Projects, Stephen Cavers says, “An important aspect of the MINDSTORMS community, I feel< is the sharing of ideas and knowledge for the sake of fun and innovation.” (10 COOL LEGO Mindstorms Ultimate Builders Projects) Some people see LEGO?s as a creative alternative to things such as sports and video games. (The Boston Globe, “GLOBE WEST 4 / MILFORD; TEAM-BUILDING, BLOCK BY BLOCK LEGO CLUB UNITES YOUNGSTERS IN PURSUING THEIR PASSION”) Next we’ll see some of the competitions LEGO?s have been used in. According to Guinness World Records, the tallest LEGO? structure was built in Tallinn, Estonia on August 18-21, 1998. It was 24.91 meters or 82 feet high, using 391,478 eight-studded bricks. Over six thousand children helped make it. It was organized by A. S. 7 Rekato Ltd. It beat the previous record by 25 centimeters or 9 inches set earlier in July in Moscow, Russia. There were wind speeds of 25 mph during the three days with rain on each of them, making it harder to build the tower. The children also raised money for the Tallinn Children’s Hospital. (Guinness World Records, “Tallest LEGO? Structure”) The longest LEGO? structure was a millipede measuring 1,014.8 meters or 3,329.39 feet. It was built using over two million bricks put together by students from twenty-three local elementary schools at Meyer, Westfield Scouthland, Melbourne, Australia on September 21 and 22, 2002. (Guinness World Records, “Longest LEGO? Structure”) City College New York held NYC’s first LEGO? tournament. 51 students came from the all over the city to enter. Ten teams built models of robots that went on “missions,” including cleaning dust off of solar panels, freeing the rover from “traps,” and taking ice cores back to the home base. The entries answered questions about Mars during some of the breaks. A 12-year-old member of the winning team, Christopher Jones, who lives in Harlem, said, “I think it was fun, even though sometimes it was hard.” Another member of the winning team, 11-year-old Dominic Nanton, said, “I learned that teamwork solves almost anything and that practice makes perfect.” An engineering Junior at CCNY, Johnny Zephyer, said, “They learned the essential skills we all need as grownups.” (New York Amsterdam News, “CCNY Holds Lego challenge”) Now we’ll look at the different types of products LEGO? makes. DUPLO? line, created for children under five, was started internationally in 1969. They are eight times bigger than regular bricks-twice as long, high, and wide. Both sizes of bricks can be put together because of DUPLO?'s hollow studs. In 1979, the first space kit 8 was made. LEGO TECHNIC?, started in 1977, had pieces that let children create motorized models. The Vintage Car series, released in 1975, did not appeal to very many children. It was discontinued. The FABULAND? line was released in 1979. The pieces were big, like DUPLO?, but not that big. The kits were easy to put together. The line had lots of characters that were animals, and booklets that came with the kits had stories about them. One 1980s character was Rickey Bear. Some new parts were created in 1980, like the railroad tie, and the TECHNIC? Shock Absorber. In 1983, the DUPLO Baby series was launched. It included 6 double-grip rattles with a few studs on them. A series named LEGO PRIMO? for children under 2 was made in 1995. In 1996, Lego added LEGO WATCH SYSTEM? to the ever-growing line of licensed products. This was a watch that came with different colors of detachable links for the band so the watch could be customized. Some watches come with different faces; the faces not in use can be stored behind the face being used. Many different themes of watches have been made. Also in 1996 was the first racing car number, a slanted brick with a number on it so that racecars could have numbers, and the Western kits, a series of wild west-themed kits with characters like Colonel Jefferson of Fort Apache. In March 2004, LEGO? began thinking about starting the LEGO Premium club. They had the LEGO club members to take a survey to find out if LEGO? should launch the Premium club or not. It would include 6 new sets a year for free, each worth $3.99, six 36-page magazines, a members-only website, and a CD that allowed them to design and print instructions for models that could be built using special pieces that also came as part of the club’s exclusive features. On the survey, they gave a price they thought it should be, then when enough people said it was too expensive, they lowered the price by about $10.00. 9 At the time this paper was being written, LEGO? still had not stopped the survey or decided about the club, and the current price was $39.99. There are three LEGOLand?s. The first one is in Billund in 1968, the second in Windsor, England, in 1996, and the third is in Carlsbad, California, opened in 1999. The LEGOLand?s in Billund and Carlsbad each have a Miniland, a miniature city made completely out of LEGO?s by a team of Master Builders for each park who also build the other models for the parks. Windsor has something similar to Miniland, with models of buildings in England, such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, and Tower Bridge. Billund’s LEGOLand? has a new major development almost every year. At Windsor’s LEGOLand?, there are go-carts that appear to be made out of giant LEGO? pieces that people can ride in on a street. There is even a gas-station for the cars! (The Ultimate LEGO Book) In California’s LEGOLand?, there is a LEGO Clubhouse for LEGO club members where Master Builders go on stage and talk to the people there about what they do. (LEGO magazine) Sometimes, a park will be visited by a famous LEGO? employee, like Greg Farshtey, who writes LEGO magazine. Fans can get their picture taken with them and get their autograph. (BZPower, “Greg Farshtey at LEGOLand”) By now, one might be thinking, “If LEGO? is so good that someone would write an entire research paper about it, then does it have any educational value?” Now we’ll see the answer to that question. Research done by the LEGO? Group showed that many people with successful careers in science and math-based trades grew up playing with LEGO?s. (The Boston Globe, “GLOBE WEST 4 / MILFORD; TEAM-BUILDING, BLOCK BY BLOCK LEGO CLUB UNITES YOUNGSTERS IN PURSUING THEIR PASSION”) LEGO?s help 10 make complex technological and scientific areas easier for students to understand. LEGO? toys merge fun and creativity with specific learning targets in math, science, design, and technology. (Press Room, “LEGO robotics to challenge youngsters in German Year of Technology”) LEGO? are equally as motivating for both genders. Teachers noticed more socializing between the students using LEGO?s than the students learning the regular way. Students with low literacy and numeracy abilities showed high levels of improvement and could understand them. All students were able to work at a level they couldn’t before. Many children had an increase in self esteem. Students showed greater achievement levels in math, language, and technology than the students in the control group. The teachers said that the students gained technological skills, socialized better, learned to follow instructions, became independent of needing help with programming, had a higher level of understanding than with the control group, helped each other if someone was confused, and in just three weeks their knowledge and understanding of the mentioned areas had improved since previous teachings. The students said that working with LEGO?s helped them to understand the mechanisms better by baking them. The students needed little help from the teachers. The students’ organizational and problem-solving skills improved greatly. They enjoyed it a lot, so they were a great motivator because of the students’ high interest levels. It is unusual for the SEN students to be really on-task, and the only time they were on-task was when they were learning with the kits. Many mentally-challenged children, and children with things such as dyslexia, were fully engaged and motivated. At one point, the children chose their partners. This was good, and helped motivate them. Partners by themselves did not do as well. The use of the kits helped the students develop knowledge and understanding of 11 mechanisms and structures more easily than through the use of other teachings. The students were also able to learn the terms and associated vocabulary. If the teacher did not teach the vocabulary, the potential of the resource was not realized. Then it would appear to be advisable to support teachers in the use of the correct terminology with their pupils. (The Educational Impact of LEGO Dacta Materials. ) So by now, readers of this paper should know the history of LEGO?, how LEGO? pieces are made, some of the uses for LEGO?s, some of the people who use LEGO?s, how popular LEGO? is, why it’s so popular, some competitions LEGO?s have been used in, types of products LEGO? makes, and if playing with LEGO?s helps students in fields such as math, robotics, and engineering. The purpose of this paper was to inform people about the LEGO? Group, from it’s very beginnings in Billund, in Jutland, Denmark, making wooden products, to the multi-billion-dollar toy, book, movie, game, and apparel company it is today. It has served its purpose. 12