Would you like to learn a fun LEGO STEM activity that you can do with your child? In this article, I will show you everything you need about how to make a LEGO marble maze. At the end, I will also give you some background information about mazes vs labyrinths.
Contents
What STEM Skills Can Your Child Develop While Building A LEGO Marble Maze?
A child can learn many things while building this LEGO marble maze. The process involves planning, designing, engineering, testing, and solving problems.
A maze like this one can also help develop visual planning, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination. On top of that: it’s also a great exercise in patience using the small movements to get the marble to the LEGO maze exit.
What Materials Do You Need To Create A Simple DIY LEGO Marble Maze?
My parents actually kept all the LEGO I had while growing up as a kid in storage boxes. You can understand that I’m really grateful that they gave them to me when my son was ready to play with LEGO!
Here are all the materials you need to get started:
- A LEGO Classic Baseplate
- Different basic LEGO bricks
- A marble
Tutorial – Step 1
Start with the LEGO baseplate and build the walls along the sides. Make sure you create the entry and the exit point. They should be just wide enough to fit the marble.
We used the biggest LEGO baseplate we had. This can be a bit of a challenge moving the marble around, so you could start with a smaller one at first.
Step 2
Next up is creating the actual maze walls. Check the marble size on the baseplate to build the walls. Make sure you place the walls, so the marble almost touches the walls on both sides of the marble.
You can create different paths to the exit or just one. Make sure you add some dead ends as well!
And if you run out of color, just use another color as we did. Or you could use a theme: a Christmas maze, Fourth of July maze, or colors from flags of different countries in the world.
Another creative idea that my son came up with is to add little arches for the marble to pass through.
Step 3
The maze is finished, great job! Now it’s time for the marble run: pick up the baseplate, start on one side and try to move the marble to the exit.
More Creative LEGO Marble Maze Ideas
Here is some more inspiration to create your next LEGO marble maze:
A creative marble maze by Cburn Libraries on Flickr.
A great maze with minotaur menaces by angwe23 on Flickr.
A beautiful crocodile swamp by CJ Hendrix on Flickr.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is The Difference Between A Maze And A Labyrinth?
Mazes have a lot of paths and choices, however, a labyrinth has a single path that leads to the center of the structure. Mazes are meant to confuse and frustrate, while labyrinths are created to offer visitors peace and tranquility. There are many different entry and exit points in mazes, while there is only one access point to the center in a labyrinth.
A labyrinth can be complex but is not difficult to navigate because it has a clear route to the middle and back. The construction of a maze can have different levels of difficulty and complexity.
What Is The Trick To Getting Out Of A Maze?
Use the rule of following your right hand to get out of a simple maze. Place your hand on the right wall at the entrance of the maze. To make this technique work, it is important to start at the entrance.
Start walking and make sure you follow the wall on your right-hand side. Make sure you keep your hand along the wall to guide you. Walk forwards, away from the exit, until you reach a junction or a dead end.
Keep following the right wall through intersections and around dead-end roads. At intersections, you usually take the nearest path to your right. On a dead-end path, if you follow the right wall, you walk around it until you leave the dead-end road. As long as you keep your hand on the right wall and walk ahead, you will find the exit.
Where Is The Biggest Maze In The World?
Yancheng Dafeng in China is the biggest maze in the world. It’s also called the Dream Maze and opened up in September 2017.
It is a huge structure, an outdoor puzzle for those who want to challenge their sense of direction. After five months of building, the labyrinth was completed with different records for size and length.
It is a structure with bridges, statues, an observation tower, and several mazes inside. It is over 9.4 kilometers, which would take us almost two hours on foot with perfect knowledge of the path. Visitors entering this maze usually spend most of the day as the maze itself offers several stops for a drink.
Wrapup
My son and I had a lot of fun creating the maze and moving the marble through it. In this post, I’ve shown you how you can also create a LEGO marble maze from scratch, the STEM skills involved, and some background information about mazes and labyrinths.
Do you have any questions or LEGO mazes you like to share? Leave them in the comments below!
As a parent of a five-year-old inquisitive boy, I have gained a lot of experience finding fun activities and toys to help him understand science and understanding our world in general. On this blog, you’ll find an extensive amount of tutorials, guides, and toys about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math based on my personal experience to help your child develop critical STEM skills.
