Earlier this semester I boldly declared that the Egg Drop Challenge was my favorite program we have ever done. I still think that, but LEGO Hexbug Mazes was a VERY close second! We planned a lot of really fun programs this spring and I am thrilled we were able to do this one just before school closed as a result of Covid-19.
Kids love LEGO. That is one thing I have learned in my years as a children’s librarian. I learned about Hexbugs a year or so ago and bought them for a different STEM maze activity, but I thought this time it would be fun to add the bonus of LEGO to our program.
Looking back on this program is really strange. Our programs run Thursdays after school, and the following day was the students last school day of the 2019-2020 school year. Literally 24 hours after this program, school shut down because of the coronavirus and I did not see my students again until the following school year. We had a GREAT program, but looking back on it now is really strange!
First things first if you don’t know what Hexbugs are you need to look into them. They are REALLY neat. They are little plastic/silicone bugs with a motor inside that makes them move! They are a type of bristlebot (I’ve DIYed these before too and they are really fun!) so they vibrate and the little legs make them move and bounce all over. They are great for mazes, because they just bounce up against the side and keep moving. We’ve done different types of mazes with them before, but LEGO worked great because they are sturdy and the kids were able to build the walls a little higher than the bugs.
I had a TON of kids come to this program. I split them into groups, and gave each group a LEGO baseplate. They were told to create their section of the maze however they wanted as long as the entrance was on one side of the baseplate and the exit was on another. I took all their baseplates and made one long maze so the Hexbugs could go through them! Some of the groups covered their mazes like tunnels, so we couldn’t see the Hexbugs while they were navigating them. The kids always cheered when they emerged!
I ended up with 12 LEGO baseplates of mazes so we split them in half and hooked 6 baseplates together. So there were 2 final mazes. Here are photos of them!
And here are some close-ups of the Hexbugs going through the mazes!
Overall this was a really great and fun program and I would definitely do it again!
Miss Meg's Library 