Article
James Estrin/The New York Times/Redux

LEGO Builder

Veronica Watson turned her LEGO hobby into a job!

By Erin Kelly
From the Special Collections Issue

Learning Objective: Students will find the volume of rectangular prisms representing buildings made from LEGO bricks.

Lexile: 900L; 690L

Many kids love building with LEGO bricks. But how many kids end up getting paid to build with LEGO bricks as an adult?

That’s what Veronica Watson did. In 2014, she won a contest to be a Master Model Builder at the Legoland Discovery Center in Yonkers, New York. A Master Model Builder gets to play with LEGOs full time! Veronica started the job after college and stayed there for two years.

Beginning Builder

As a kid, Watson didn’t think about working for LEGO. She was too busy building. She and her little brothers spent hours in their basement making LEGO cities, Star Wars spaceships, and even a model of the Hogwarts castle from the Harry Potter books. Building the castle took a month to do. It was so big that it covered a table!

But when Watson grew up, she needed to get a job. That’s when she heard about the contest to become a Master Model Builder.

“I thought I would enter for fun,” Watson says. In the contest, Veronica built animals, a guitar, and a model of her head. Kids helped judge the contest entries—and they picked Watson’s!

To celebrate her win, workers dumped LEGO bricks on Watson. “I had LEGO bricks in my pockets and in my shoes,” she says laughing.

Courtesy Kayla Mead/LEGOLAND Discovery Center Westchester and Autodesk

Workers celebrate Watson’s win in the building competition.

On the Job

As a Master Model Builder, Watson built LEGO projects for Legoland. She built of a Star Wars Death Star, the U.S. women’s soccer team, and even Beyoncé.

“My favorite thing to build out of LEGO is actually people,” Watson says. “I find it really fun to look at photographs of celebrities or characters and try to represent them by using little LEGO bricks.”

Before Watson starts a project, she thinks about color first. Next, she looks at the shapes of her bricks, thinking about which she needs.

For small builds, Watson works fast, putting pieces together in different ways until she’s satisfied. For larger builds, she takes her time and models the build on graph paper first.

Watson’s advice for builders: “When you’re going to build a new model, look at parts you already have available. It can be a little to have the idea in your head first, and then find that you don’t have the parts that you need.”

Scott Gries/AP Images for Scholastic, Inc.

Watson’s model of the U.S. women’s soccer team

Beyond LEGO

These days, Watson has less time for LEGO. She left her job at Legoland to study at Columbia University in New York. Architects design real buildings.

“Architecture is very related to LEGO,” Watson says. It will allow her to follow her passion and keep building!

Now You Try It

1. Let’s say a LEGO building is 5 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 9 inches tall.

A. You can fit 4 rows of 5 along the bottom of the building. Each cube measures 1 cubic inch. How many cubes are along the bottom layer of the building?

B. The building is 9 layers tall. How many total cubes would fill up the building? What does this value represent?

2. Larger buildings look even more in a LEGO city. A large building measures 7 inches long, 6 inches wide, and 12 inches tall.

A. How many rows of 7 cubes can you fit along the bottom of this building?

B. How many cubes are along the bottom layer of the building?

C. How many layers of cubes can fit inside the building?

D. What is the total volume of the building? Express your answer using the .

3. Veronica Watson made a LEGO school building for her LEGO city. The building measures 4 centimeters long by 2 centimeters wide by 1 centimeter tall. What is the volume of the school building in cubic centimeters?

4. Watson’s brothers made a movie theater for their LEGO city. It measures 2 centimeters by 1.5 centimeters by 3 centimeters. What is the volume of their movie theater?

5. On a separate sheet of paper, design a LEGO building that is 5 cubic centimeters larger than the movie theater. Record the building’s measurements.

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Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

1. SPARK ENGAGEMENT.

Play the video “Veronica the LEGO Master”. Before or after reading the article, spark a discussion based on the following questions as a whole group, in small groups, or with  a partner:

  • What kinds of structures can you create with LEGO® bricks? 
  • What can you tell about the size of a building or structure by looking at it? 
  • What things would you need to measure to build a structure?

2. INTRODUCE THE MATH CONCEPT AND VOCABULARY.

Engage students with the following questions to discuss the meaning of volume:

  • How is a 3-D figure different from a 2-D figure? (A 2-D figure is flat and has only two measurements, length and width, while a 3-D figure has depth [or height] and includes three measurements.)  
  • A 3-D figure is also known as a polyhedron. 
  • The amount of space a 3-D object occupies is called volume.

3. WORK THROUGH A SAMPLE PROBLEM AS A CLASS.

  • Add the following measurements to the figure: 

  • Find the volume of the figure. (2 cm × 5 cm × 2 cm = 20 cm³
  • We express the answer in cubic units since we are multiplying the unit measurement three times.  
  • Have students work with a partner. Give each pair  of students 30 unit cubes. Allow them to re-create the rectangular prism from the example, using their cubes to check to see if their calculations  were correct.  
  • Provide students with additional dimensions of other 3-D rectangular prisms or cubes within 30 cubic units. Have students calculate the volume and build the dimensions of each shape to prove their calculations.  
  • Allow student volunteers to share with the class their figures and the volumes they found. 

4. REINFORCE WITH MATH PRACTICE. 

Have students complete the problem set, then compare their answers with those of a partner. 

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