RAPID CITY, S.D. — An East Middle School science teacher is using Legos to give students a hands-on way to explore force, motion and Newton’s laws while helping students who may struggle with more traditional classroom lessons.

Tiffany Wolla teaches sixth- and eighth-grade science at East Middle School and received funding from the Rapid City Public School Foundation for Lego kits that allow students to build, program and test vehicles while studying concepts such as force, motion and action and reaction.

Wolla said some students understand science concepts more easily when they can physically see them happen rather than relying only on worksheets or visual models. Students had particularly struggled with identifying both sides of Newton’s third law. “They will tell you the action, but then they can’t always figure out the reaction,” Wolla said. With the Lego vehicles, students can watch one car collide with another and observe what happens as different amounts of force are applied.

The kits also allow Wolla to incorporate more than one part of the science curriculum. Although the project was developed around Newton’s third law, she said it can also help teach the first and second laws of motion. She hopes to expand the kits into sixth-grade earth science lessons, including activities involving the moon and Mars.

Students can work with the Legos as part of a lesson or after completing other assignments. Wolla also uses them with students who may be having difficulty understanding the material. She said the hands-on approach can help students lower their guard and become more willing to discuss what they are learning. “When kids like let down their guard and are like, ‘Oh, you’re not going to make me write five paragraphs,’” Wolla said, they begin building and talking about what they see. Those conversations also help her identify concepts a student may not yet understand.

Students involved in the project recorded observations about the amount of force used and what happened to the vehicles. Wolla plans to develop a more structured data chart this school year while still leaving students enough freedom to experiment and use their imagination. She said part of the goal is teaching students to move beyond simple observations and instead consider what moved, how far it traveled and why.

The project reached about 60 students, according to Wolla’s grant assessment. She said working in small groups is particularly valuable because it gives her a better opportunity to determine where individual students are struggling while encouraging creativity and problem-solving. “I’m a very small group believer,” Wolla said. “I just feel like I can’t catch all of them” during whole-class instruction.

One student stood out to Wolla when she first received the Lego kit. She described him as an advanced science student who can sometimes be difficult to challenge because of how much he already understands. Before Wolla had even opened the kit, she handed it to him and asked him to figure out how it could accomplish her goal. “He was so excited,” Wolla said. After the student figured out how the kit worked, she encouraged him to work with another student who had been struggling. The two began exchanging ideas and working through the project together.

Wolla said the Rapid City Public School Foundation grant made the project possible because the specialized Lego kits were more expensive than something she could otherwise easily bring into the classroom. “I could bring those Legos in, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to bring those Lego kits in because they were a little more pricey,” Wolla said. She plans to continue using the materials in future classes and develop additional ways to incorporate them into sixth- and eighth-grade lessons.

The foundation provides grants intended to help educators introduce innovative learning opportunities that may not fit within traditional school or classroom budgets. Wolla encouraged other teachers with ideas to first determine how a project could benefit their students and build their grant application around that purpose. “Once you find the purpose of it, I guess then you can just go to town and it’s a lot easier,” Wolla said.

For Wolla, the project also reflects why she values public education. She said public schools give educators an opportunity to work with students from a wide variety of backgrounds, including children who need teachers and other adults supporting them. “I love the kids that I get to see,” Wolla said. “There’s so many diversities in public schools that it’s really nice to see.”

East Middle School is also home to an English language learner program for students whose native language is not English. Rapid City Area Schools Community Relations Manager Bobbi Schaefbauer said 52 languages are spoken across the district, highlighting the range of backgrounds represented among students in Rapid City Area Schools.