BuildSTEAM uses real Lego machines to inspire the next generation of innovators. 

"Build" refers to hands-on activities involving trial and error, rapid-idea prototyping and testing, and open sharing. "STEAM" is STEM + arts/humanities. By combining STEM and arts, young innovators learn STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math) alongside history, economics, geography, and culture.

About Me

A few years ago, I wanted to make a parabolic dish track the sun’s movement. I knew that a clock mechanism could be used to track the sun and small daily adjustments could handle the different elevations. It could be easily done with electronics, but in a third-world country, mechanical solutions can be fixed locally but electronics just stop working. So I started experimenting with Lego gears that I had left over from my four children.

Just how hard could it be to make an accurate clock? I quickly found out. Growing up in a time when I saw my parents fix mechanical and electrical things gave me an edge. Coming from an engineering family and being good at math and science helped, too. Being fascinated by the 400-day anniversary clock in my parents’ house and always taking things apart gave me a solid understanding of mechanical devices. But I wasn’t expecting the intense challenge of trying to create a precision clock out of the limited parts made by Lego. Soon I was no longer considering the solar tracker.

I was hooked on creating a fun and educational astronomical clock made out of Lego that could be used by families, teachers, and museums to teach STEAM. The educational phenomenon of STEM + A for Arts/Humanities could be supplemented with real working machines built out of the most versatile toy ever made. Legos are in seven out of every ten U.S. households. While most AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego) build artistic models, monster vehicles, or computer-controlled machines, what appealed to me was building working machines from the Industrial Revolution without motors or programming that demonstrated how historical machines were made, including the math and science used to create them. Not too many other people were doing this.

After two years, I “finished” the clock, and with encouragement from my local clock collectors, drove from Detroit to Milwaukee, and won the People’s Choice award from the NAWCC (National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors) in 2014. If these clock enthusiasts could recognize the innovation, fun, and potential of my Lego clock, then perhaps I was on the right track. I thought it could apply to many other machines. I took the next 18 months to complete other machines I had been designing, including a Lego working model of a “steam” engine powered by a vacuum cleaner that explains double acting steam engines, railroad reversing mechanisms, straight line mechanisms, and fly-ball governors. I now have a Lego mechanical logic gate (the basis of modern computers), Lego phonograph, and a Lego adding machine.  Lego Key locks and combination locks models are explained. A working Lego sextant with a Vernier scale can help complete the Longitude story.

With these models, I hope to inspire three groups: children, mentors, and experts. For children, I want them to learn to love and understand mechanisms and engineering and appreciate their historical impact. They can gain the confidence that complex processes can be studied and understood. I want them to become makers and inventors, confident in using the tools of math and science. For teachers/mentors/parents, I want to create models and collaborate on workshop lesson plan materials to help them foster tinkering. For experts, I want to provide a platform where they can share their knowledge with the next generation and add supporting information to supplement the hands-on Lego models.

I started taking my machines to Maker Faires. People were excited, but everybody wanted one thing: a website, full of background information, pictures and videos, instructions, lesson plans, and inspiration. And here it is. It’s a little bit Maker, a little bit STEM/STEAM, a little bit Open Source and Instructables. My posts will cover details from the models, general design, engineering concepts, historical and cultural notes, math, science, cool things I’ve read, and anything else that fits this innovation concept.

If young people can make machines that teach basic principles of mechanisms—and also learn the background of the cultural struggles and the inventor’s solutions—more young innovators will go into engineering and technology fields. Just think of it: if the physics of a pendulum and the math of gear trains are part of a cross collaboration integrated hands-on Lego lesson plan, the joy of math and science can be instilled at a very young age.  More kids will learn that they too can understand complex things . . . not just machines but people, processes, and situations. Kids will learn persistence, working with limited resources, trial and error, decisions, trade-offs, and consequences. And those are the skills we need the next generation to have.

I hope you'll enjoy the site, share it, and use the Lego models and lessons to tap the talent of young people. I invite you to share your ideas for new projects or tweaks to existing ones. Together, let’s inspire young innovators.

John Stouffer