Teaching basic mechanics with Lego

© 2021 IEEE.Incorporating didactic tools such as Lego pieces allows to motivate the learning of basic physics concepts. This work shows an integrated proposal to teach mechanics concepts using experiments carried out with Lego pieces. The proposal is approached in four stages. First, students build mechanisms using Lego pieces. Subsequently, the movement of the mechanism is analyzed by video analysis using the Tracker software. In the third stage, the theoretical model associated with the mechanism is built, analyzed, and solved using computational tools such as Mathematica or MATLAB, at the end the theoretical results are compared with the experimental results. In the final stage, the physical concepts are evaluated through an evaluation system built on the Canvas platform. Some of the studied experiments are launching of objects by a catapult, lifting of objects by means of a pulley system, movement in the crank-rod mechanism, movement on an inclined plane, analysis of movement with obstacles, movement on a roller coaster. At the end of this work, the results in learning and in the development of disciplinary competencies of the students who participated in the educational experience are discussed.

Teaching basic mechanics with Lego Academic Article in Scopus