Review: BricQ Motion Prime Personal Learning Kit
Posted by Huw,
Last month LEGO Education launched two new products for teaching STEM using traditional methods, without the need for tablets, computers or coding.
45400 BricQ Motion Prime is aimed at secondary school children, while 45401 BricQ Motion Essential is for younger primary school aged kids. Both kits encourage experimentation with forces, motion and interactions in the context of sports. They will soon be available from LEGO.com and can already be purchased from authorised LEGO education partners, such as Raising Robots in the UK, which is from where I obtained mine.
The sets are intended for classroom use and contain parts and instructions for a range of experiments. In addition, two smaller sets are available which are intended to be taken home to enable kids to continue learning there. In the UK they cost just over £10 and the one I am examining in this article, 2000470 BricQ Motion Prime Personal Learning Kit, contains a wealth of new and useful parts for Technic builders.
As I'm not a teacher and don't have secondary school aged kids around to use as guinea pigs, I won't be considering the educational value of the set so will instead concentrate on its merits for AFOLs, in particular Technic builders.
The BricQ Prime sets consist primarily of studless Technic beams and associated connectors, whereas the Essential ones, for younger kids, sticks to old-style Technic beams. This one, 2000470 BricQ Motion Prime Personal Learning Kit, contains 78 pieces and the inventory has been published.
The most interesting pieces are as follows:
- The 11x15 frames were new last year and are unique to Education sets in medium azure.
- The smaller 7x11 frames are becoming more prevalent now since their debut in 42100 Liebherr R 9800 but lime green ones are unique to the BricQ sets.
- The 16-long axle and lime green beams are relatively uncommon
Last but certainly not least, the 2x6x2 weight bricks. These contain a 50g metal block and have not appeared in a non-Education set since 2006. They'll currently set you back around £4.50 at BrickLink and at LEGO bricks and pieces, so if you need them for your MOCs this is a good way to acquire them. They are useful in trains, to help provide traction, and also as counterweights in cranes or other machines.
The kit builds a kinetic machine that demonstrates Newton's law, momentum and transfer of forces. The counterweight bricks form the gymnast's legs. When he is rotated backwards and released his swinging motion causes the vehicle to move. Ratchets on the front and back axles are used to control the direction. Kids are encouraged to adjust the angle of swing and measure distance travelled, and so on. A lesson plan is available on the LEGO Education website.
If you're currently home-schooling 11-12 year olds the set provides an inexpensive introduction to using LEGO in an educational setting, and a good way to facilitate practical physics experiments at home.
If you all have fun while doing so you could look at buying the full BricQ Prime kit for more. One downside of doing that, though, is that the parts in this set, and this experiment, are also included in the main kit.
For the rest of us, it's unlikely you'll want to buy it for the model it builds, but it's a great parts pack. The large Technic frames are uncommon and useful, and the counterweights rare and costly. I can see this being an attractive purchase for those that have a need for them.
The two large BricQ sets are listed at LEGO.com but not the two smaller ones. I obtained mine from Raising Robots where this one is available for £9+VAT.
I have the larger set too and will evaluate that in the coming days if you'd like me to.
68 likes
22 comments on this article
I was a little confused when I saw this published, given that it's not a self-contained BricQ Motion kit, but I read it and saw that it was a parts pack review and understood. I write parts pack reviews from time to time myself.
Having said that, please do review one of the main kits!
Working as a designer in the Education department at Lego would be an interesting job compared to working in the more obvious divisions. It would not only require an engineering and toy design background like the other designers, but also a strong educational background to be able to design sets that help students explore these concepts.
I've been studying adult education over the last few months, and it's a very engaging field. Huw if you ever get the chance to interview an educational set designer, please do so! It could be good fodder for a series of articles in the slow months too.
A few years back I had a carefully looked-after half-class set of dacta 1030 Simple Machines which were really good. It was a nuisance to manage them as you had to be a full-on stroppy teacher to make sure they were returned complete each time, but well worth it: a set of 20 instructions for levers, gears, pulleys, steering... I also used them for cams and they were incredibly popular in after-school clubs.
Where I am now we have a big box of Technic bits we can use for clubs, which is brilliant.
Ah! Those days before teaching from home and getting constantly distracted by Brickset.
Ah, Inventor Sets for a new generation.
The burning question I've always had--how come Education sets are some of the most expensive PPP wise LEGO makes, despite not being licensed? Sets like these are perfect--just for "messing with".
School went back where I live today--saw the schoolbus backing out of the 'holler as I got up this morning.
With all of the new technic frame pieces, this almost looks like Znap 2.0
I wasn't even aware of the balance weight part, and they are just the thing I need for an MoC I'm working on.
Would be good to see the review of the larger set, too.
@cody6268 said:
"The burning question I've always had--how come Education sets are some of the most expensive PPP wise LEGO makes, despite not being licensed? Sets like these are perfect--just for "messing with". "
You are not just buying parts: you're also getting teacher resources, lesson plans and so on. We might not put any value on them but I'm sure educators do.
In the case of the larger sets you're also paying for a good quality and virtually indestructible storage box.
@cody6268 said:
"The burning question I've always had--how come Education sets are some of the most expensive PPP wise LEGO makes, despite not being licensed? Sets like these are perfect--just for "messing with".
School went back where I live today--saw the schoolbus backing out of the 'holler as I got up this morning. "
The price presumably includes a share of the cost of researching and producing the learning material that goes alongside. Education is an odd range indeed, the large sets are expensive, but the smaller workshop 'per pupil' type kits are often incredibly good value.
@CCC said:
"It looks like a fun set, and good for teaching one thing but the lesson plans ought to suggest other ways to use the kit, to disassemble it and not leave it as a complete model."
This small set is really just an extension of the larger one. That includes plenty of activities re-utilising these parts. The purpose of this is to give it to kids to take home for homework. I can't see many schools in the UK being able to justify spending £10 a kid for them, though.
"It is a shame if this is only available through education resellers. They often bang on about the importance of education but then not sell the sets through their own stores, website or other normal outlets. To buy one of these, it costs £16.80. £9 plus VAT = £10.80 and £5 postage plus VAT on that = £6. If they were available on their own website, I might have bought one for £10.80 when placing another order."
Yes that is a bit of a nuisance, but I bought the larger set too so avoided p&p.
@Huw said:
"I can't see many schools in the UK being able to justify spending £10 a kid for them, though.
"
Is the UK education system really so bad off that a one time investment of £200 to equip a grade with these is too much?
Or did you mean „a kid“ with the intention of letting them keep it, thus becoming expensive over time?
My Mom was a teacher and I remember browsing the dacta catalogs with her back in the 90‘ - that stuff was really expensive (~£350 for a 4 person kit), and indeed she said they would never be able to afford to equip a whole class with it; so they came up with rotations to limit the number of kits needed.
I also like this as a small weights parts pack, and can second the request for a review of the full kit from the same point of view.
Luckily these BricQ are much more reasonably priced than the Spike set, and as such could be interesting for specialty parts.
That small set is kind of awesome. Here I am, just sitting and waiting to spend money on technique pieces for MOCs.
This set is a great way to get some interesting parts, even though I'm not a big fan of Technic,
Hope education https://www.hope-education.co.uk/lego/ have plenty of Lego education but the above may be too new as shows out of stock for https://www.hope-education.co.uk/search?phrase=bricq , where they provide free postage excluding VAT for £25 spend. So could combine with other Lego education, arts and crafts, stationary, sport etc. once in stock. Please review 42101 as well as looks interesting.
" Please review 42101 as well as looks interesting."
We did, last year ;) I presume you mean 45400?
I'm interested in a review of the larger one, too. :-) I'd be happy if you also discuss the storage box(es) included.
@voyman said:
" @Huw said:
"I can't see many schools in the UK being able to justify spending £10 a kid for them, though.
"
Is the UK education system really so bad off that a one time investment of £200 to equip a grade with these is too much?
Or did you mean „a kid“ with the intention of letting them keep it, thus becoming expensive over time?
My Mom was a teacher and I remember browsing the dacta catalogs with her back in the 90‘ - that stuff was really expensive (~£350 for a 4 person kit), and indeed she said they would never be able to afford to equip a whole class with it; so they came up with rotations to limit the number of kits needed.
I also like this as a small weights parts pack, and can second the request for a review of the full kit from the same point of view.
Luckily these BricQ are much more reasonably priced than the Spike set, and as such could be interesting for specialty parts.
"
Yep. it really is that badly off. I had a colleague desperate to buy Mindstorms who put on plays three years running to finance it. And that was ten years ago, we have much less to spend now.
@CCC said:
" @voyman said:
" @Huw said:
"I can't see many schools in the UK being able to justify spending £10 a kid for them, though.
"
Is the UK education system really so bad off that a one time investment of £200 to equip a grade with these is too much?
Or did you mean „a kid“ with the intention of letting them keep it, thus becoming expensive over time?
"
Unless it linked directly into the curriculum, it is unlikely to be purchased. Especially for "homework" since if they go off the school premises then they are unlikely to return, or bits will be missing meaning teachers spending time reassembling kits and having to restock.
It is the sort of thing that would probably be done as a demonstration anyway, then they cannot be nicked.
I guess there must be a market though, as LEGO and knex both do these sort of education kits.
"
There's a disgusting amount of private schools in the UK, and they're drowning in money.
Thanks for the article. I would never have otherwise given these sets second look. 2000471 looks like it could be great fun.
I think I want those weight bricks. Hopefully they will allow trains to actually stay on track. Electric trains with the new 9v motors are way too top-heavy. They can't run full speed on the tracks that come with the sets. Best would be that LEGO puts some metal in the motors and wheels though.
Interesting set, thank you for the review. It's a shame we can't just add it to our orders from the Lego store. I look forward to your review of the larger set.
Another vote for a review of the larger set, please. I suppose these sets aren't intended for the general public and an institution ordering them would probably use a very different purchasing system from what ordinary people use (not a credit card/paypal account) which is why the two types of product aren't easily combined. This isn't the first time I've been intrigued by Education sets, though!