Engineering is the core of practical creation in STEAM education, which focuses on cultivating children’s ability to design, build and solve practical problems with scientific and technological knowledge. Building blocks, as a highly open engineering construction tool, are the best carrier for STEAM engineering education—they allow children to carry out engineering design and construction activities according to their own ideas without being limited by fixed materials and processes. In the integration of building blocks and STEAM engineering education, children experience the complete engineering process from design, construction to optimization, which perfectly fits the core of engineering education: cultivating structural thinking, design ability and practical problem-solving ability. Building blocks break the limitation of traditional engineering education that is difficult to carry out hands-on practice for children, making engineering learning more accessible, interesting and exploratory, and letting children experience the fun of engineering creation in hands-on building.
Building blocks help children establish basic engineering structural thinking and understand the relationship between structure and function. When children build a building with building blocks, they need to design the layout of the building, the structure of the walls and the bearing capacity of the roof, and realize that a reasonable structural design can ensure the stability and safety of the building; when they build a bridge, they will try different bridge structures such as beam bridges, arch bridges and cable-stayed bridges, and find that different structural designs have different bearing capacities and adapt to different application scenarios. In this process, children will unconsciously learn to analyze the structural characteristics of things, think about the relationship between structure and function, and gradually form engineering structural thinking. They will understand that any engineering creation must take structural rationality as the premise, and the design of structure should serve the realization of function. Building blocks make abstract engineering structural concepts tangible, allowing children to master structural design logic through hands-on practice.
What’s more, building blocks cultivate children’s engineering design ability and innovative thinking, encouraging them to break the inherent thinking and carry out personalized design. In the process of building with blocks, children are not limited by fixed design drawings—they can carry out free design according to their own imagination and needs. For example, when building a toy house, some children will design a multi-storey house with a balcony and a skylight, while others will design a single-storey house with a courtyard and a fence; when building a transportation vehicle, some children will design a car with four wheels and a steering wheel, while others will design a flying car with wings and a propeller. This free design process fully stimulates children’s innovative thinking and design ability. They will constantly adjust and optimize their design schemes according to their own ideas and the actual situation of building blocks, and cultivate the ability to combine imagination with practical creation. Building blocks become a canvas for children’s engineering design, letting their creative ideas be reflected in tangible works.
Building blocks also exercise children’s practical engineering construction ability and hands-on operation ability, which is the key to engineering education. Engineering design is only the first step of engineering creation, and the realization of the design scheme through hands-on construction is the core link. When children build their designed works with building blocks, they need to accurately splice different shapes and sizes of blocks, ensure the tight connection between blocks, and adjust the structure of the work in time according to the construction situation. This process exercises children’s fine motor skills and hands-on operation ability—they need to use their hands flexibly to complete the splicing and building of blocks, and improve their hands-on ability in repeated practice. In addition, when the building process encounters problems such as unstable structure and difficult splicing, children will take the initiative to think of solutions, such as replacing larger blocks, increasing supporting structures, or adjusting the splicing order. This process of solving practical problems in construction further improves their practical engineering ability.
In the context of interdisciplinary integration of STEAM, the combination of building blocks and engineering education realizes the comprehensive application of multi-disciplinary knowledge in engineering practice. When children build a mechanical robot with building blocks, they need to apply the structural design knowledge of engineering, the gear transmission principle of science, the size and position calculation of math, and the appearance optimization design of art, integrating multi-disciplinary knowledge into the whole engineering construction process; when they build a smart building with building blocks and sensor components, they combine the engineering structural design with the technological application of sensors and the data analysis of math, realizing the in-depth integration of engineering and other STEAM disciplines. This interdisciplinary engineering practice makes children understand that engineering creation is not a single disciplinary activity, but a comprehensive application of science, technology, math and art knowledge. It further stimulates their comprehensive thinking ability and the ability to apply interdisciplinary knowledge to carry out engineering creation.