Looking back at some old photos from my childhood, I found myself reminiscing about that era and the activities and toys that kept me out of mischief sometimes. My collection of Lego City kits, which I’m a bit embarrassed to acknowledge, continued throughout adulthood until only recently I had to say, “Please, no more.” I didn’t know it back then, but when I was enjoying being a child, I was an enthusiastic engineer in the making.
Returning to my reflections and how important Lego was to me during childhood, I particularly remember that I took great pleasure in assembling fire engines, tractors, trucks, and cars, to name but a few, but in addition, carefully looking at the detail; the mechanical parts, and generally how things worked. These thoughts made it more clear than ever, essentially, the essence of an engineer is to put things together or take them apart.
Stripping everything back is indeed an engineer’s fundamental role in life, and Lego is a brilliant introduction to this pathway. By subtly applying engineering concepts through play, a child can learn structure and design through assembling and building. It is surprising how quickly you can learn how to build the tallest tower that no longer wobbles and topples over or a bridge that doesn’t collapse in the middle once some weight, such as a toy car, is put on it. Once you become a grown-up mechanical design engineer, you have the tools, such as CAD and other analysis software, to aid you in producing a design and subsequent testing procedures to assess whether it is a feasible proposition.
Children are the engineers of our future, and once the accompanying instruction book is torn up, so to speak, then that’s where creativity steps in and dreams are built.
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