I mentioned in yesterday's post that the Lego Research Institute arrived.
Well as the photo below shows I've now had time to put it all together.
The Research Institute depicts the roles of an Astronomer, Paleontologist and Chemist in three viniettes.
One of the things this set was applauded for was that it used female characters in these roles instead of male ones. I don't want to get into the whole gender equality, portrayal of women, discussion. How can I really discuss it because I don't experience it on a daily basis? All I can do is try and be supportive and not re-enforce the gender steriotypes that do so much damage, that put up an invisible wall that acts as a barrier to dissuade women from entering STEM subjects. A more diverse make up of the STEM subjects can only be a positive thing enabling us to create great and amazing things. Does this set fulfil this?
The instruction booklet with the construction details in has a nice touch at the start of it where it tells you a little bit about each of the roles in the set.
Combine the booklet with the viniettes and I do think this set does create an interesting way to encourage the possibility of doing one of the STEM subjects as a career.
I like this set a lot. The figures and especially the supporting viniettes really do capture the three STEM roles. I love the T-Rex skeleton, it's frickin cool. The viniettes aren't over complicated, but their simplicity gets to the heart of what the role is.
I can see this set being used at schools. But this is a fun set, easy to build, and if you are into Lego really worth getting.
Posted by me using my iPad and the Blogsy app