Many moons ago Bev Dunbar worked with LEGO Dacta, the educational division of LEGO Austtralia, creating the world’s first LEGO Classroom outside of Denmark, at Birkenhead Point in Sydney. Over the years from 1985 – 1989 about 75 000 school students visited our popular classroom excursion program. A team of 8 teachers, mostly part-time, led the classes with a half hour workshop on a theme selected by their teachers, 30 minutes with a guided tour of the large LEGO exhibition area then 30 minutes in the giant DUPLO and LEGO play area.
Bev Dunbar (standing) with Diane Barry, Colin Sanders and Peter Smith
An example of a Maths Display from the LEGO Centre in the late 1980s
Bev Dunbar also created the LEGO Maths Pack, which was sold all over Australia. These resources and detailed activity suggestions enabled teachers to use LEGO maths resources with up to a whole class. LEGO Mosaics was a particular favourite with students of all ages.
The LEGO motto, “only the best is good enough for our children” coloured everything we organised. The LEGO Maths Pack, LEGO Technic and Dinosaurs were some of the most popular class themes. We also discovered some fascinating statistics. As so many children created LEGO models we were able to observe that 1 in 10 000 built with their LEGO bricks facing studs sideways, not studs up. And one in 20 000 children built studs down! A rarity.
Bev’s passion for creating maths resources for LEGO led eventually to her creation of this website, Maths Matters Resources, so she is now able to share her activities with teachers and children all over the world.