BUILDING A CAREER
Membertou students given a crash course in architecture
Architects use Legos to teach Membertou students about the trade.
Students at Maupeltueway Kina’matno’kuom school in Membertou were given a crash course in architecture with Legos on Tuesday from members of the Nova Scotia Association of Architects and Bricks 4 Kids.
At the school in Membertou, children in grades six, seven and eight were treated to a presentation explaining the importance of architecture and given Legos to design their own structures as part of the second annual Nova Scotia Architecture Week that takes place from Oct. 2-6.
“Today was cool because without architects we wouldn’t have anything really, we wouldn’t have buildings like the school or our homes,” said Dante Googoo, a Grade 7 student who watched the presentation and decided to build a skate park with his Legos.
The session that began at 1 p.m. started with an explanation of what an architect does, followed by a presentation of buildings in Membertou and an aerial map of Membertou where the kids picked out where they
lived so the students could connect with the profession on a personal level. After the speeches, the kids were given large bags of Legos to make their own buildings.
Gerry Lalonde, an architect who works for Membertou and was a part of the session, said the Legos provided by Bricks 4
Kids helped hit home the importance of architects in a simple and fun way.
“It’s about getting them to think about the buildings they live in. The challenge that we’ve given the kids today is what new building do you think Membertou needs?” said Lalonde.
“They were full of ideas – a waterpark, a pet store, their own Sport Chek, just very different creative ideas.”
Lalonde added that several students joined together to
create a mall, with all of the children creating their own store.
Tanya Waddell, a director for the Halifax chapter of Bricks 4 Kids, said she enjoyed watching the children understand the importance of education through something that they enjoy.
“I love to see the older kids using Legos and I love to inspire them to make them realize and show them math and sciences into something real and important to them and that they could one day design a building for Membertou or some other building anywhere in the world,” she said.
Matthew MacKeil, the language arts teacher for grades six, seven, and eight, said the presentation and hands-on work with Legos was a great way for some children to open up and be creative.
“It’s great looking at the kids and how they’re interacting with each other and how they’re able to communicate with each other. There’s some kids who are really shy and don’t communicate that much are becoming a lot more vocal and it actually encourages a lot of team work, too, so it’s good to see as a teacher,” said MacKeil.
Architecture week continues today with the Nova Scotia Architecture Association giving a presentation at 7 p.m. at the James McConnell Memorial Library called “Celebrating Nova Scotia Architecture.”