Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted June 21, 2014 06:27 PM
In the post on the Lego Palace Cinema, Martin has raised the issue of the educational value of Lego models.
To illuminate Martin a little bit further about Lego, here are a couple of photos of the motorized excavator, also built by my grandson. It has over 1400 parts, including no less than 47 gears, 2 linear actuators, 3 universal joints, and a clutch assembly. All made from ”little plastic pieces”. The model has full range of arm and bucket motions, and features moving pistons in the engine block, and 4 wheel drive via two differential gear assemblies. It is a gorgeous functional engineering piece which can teach a whole lot about mechanisms. And who on earth would now want to take it apart?
I grew up with Meccano, and in my opinion there has never been a better and more educational toy (I hate to call it that, because it is so much more than a toy) than the classic Meccano sets from Frank Hornby’s Binns Road company. It is the 'toy' that inspired me into a lifetime engineering career. Meccano is still around (Erector in the USA), but it is nothing like the old sets, now greatly cheapened with junky Chinese components and far removed from the ‘real engineering in miniature’ capability of the classic period sets. Frankly, Meccano have sat on their asses while Lego has struck out across the world, with an innovative and creative product line across all categories. Just like Martin I viewed Lego as an inferior product. But having seen first hand the educational sets, the use of computer programming, pneumatics, solar cells, infra –red rangefinders, color sensors, etc, the committment of the company to generate educational material for schools, well it frankly leaves the present day Meccano sets in the dust.
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