LEGO® ALIENS at the '97 MARIN COUNTY FAIR!
A note of thanks for all the enthusiasm for the 1997 Marin County Fair! First some text and
then some pictures!
A LEGO® Report on the 1997 Marin County Fair. ( Another
example of how Lego® elements are conducive for creativity! )
PCS Edventures along with Warren Black of VR Quest sponsered a booth in
the 1997 Marin County Fair Multimedia Funhouse. The Fair runs from July 2
to the 6 and draws thousands of people from San Francisco to Sonoma.
This year, the theme was
"Close Enounters of the Marin Kind."I was excited as big software
players such as Lucas Arts and Autodesk ( at whose offices I was parking
) would be there....along with many Lego® fans.
Tuesday was setup day in preparation for a gala. Decked out in my best
nerd technology t-shirt ( "186000 miles per second, it's not a good
idea, it's the law" ) I taped down the carpet ( the only booth at the
Fair so prepared ) and prepared the Danish Lego® building
table. I have never seen another of these Lego®
building tables in the United
States...although I am sure they exist. I pulled out several large bins
of bricks and many Lego® models.
Some of the others wanted to bring other Lego® elements
( gears etc ). I
suggested it would be easier to keep bricks organized and they
are intuitive enough anyone could build interesting sculptures. I wanted
to keep the booth busy and interesting. In one corner I placed a
large monitor demoing PCS Edventures and on a small white wheeled table
I had a contest box set up. ( PCS hosted a drawing for a classic Dacta
kit! ). If the visitors tired of Legos®,
VR Quest with its demo of the
VR game created by PCS students was next door.
It was an incredible success for Lego® fans! During the course of the
Fair, I talked to 1000s of people about the educational benefits of
Lego® elements in the curriculum and watched 100s of children build many
sculptures. Houses and free standing works of art were favorites but
each day had its great themes. The fourth of July saw 20 or so Lego
American flags made ( including one that waved! ). The fifth had many
Martians created ( all seemingly hiding behind Barnacle Bill from the
Martian lander ). One day, two enterprising students built a gigantic
MARIN for the Fair. Another day saw a 4 foot tall ALIEN. A Lego® fan
named Peter built several HUGE dragons and a great eagle ( this kid has
a career at the Lego®Group! ). It was excellent planning. The PCS booth was in the
doorway for the Multimedia Funhouse...we were the first thing kids saw
and we never lacked for eager hands to help build Pagoda roofs and space
monsters.
In fact I had several parents get angry. They couldn't pull their kids
away from the Lego® bricks! One father grumped "Guys...let's go ride the
carnival rides...we've got these at HOME!" The children waved him off
with a "five more minutes." They were there for three hours.
This worked well with the VR Quest booth. As people waited for a chance
to put on the VR headsets and play the Ozone game, they could enter the
drawing for a $70 DACTA kit ( won by a girl named Anna ) and build with
Lego® bricks!
The short and long of it was that kids built from Tuesday night to
Sunday night. I would occasionally grab an alien and troop it in front of
the Fair's web cameras in hopes of fooling someone in thinking the
Martians were landing their own expedition!
The Fair did feature a "Constructive Arts" event. The overall winner was
a Kinnex kit ( a mutation of the Ball Roller Coaster ) but everything
else was pretty much Lego® stuff. My favorite was the Lego®
Clock Tower (
complete with alarm clock ) built by a 5 year old girl.
One great moment were the visits by Bill Katz and Erik Wilson from RTL!
Bill is a great Lego® collector whose name is familiar and Erik has
great pics of Greek Lego® architecture. It is wonderful to put a face
with people you have only known through the web! I also had opportunites
to meet a variety of teachers, administrators and curriculum folk during
the Fair.
After the Fair came to a close...I had several folk tell me our booth
was the best because it was the most interactive and the funnest! The
Marin County Fair even added a web page ( no longer online ) showing what was built.
Sure there were other things happening: A mini fiddle contest...the
Marin County Film Festival...the Toilet Art...It was a great Fair and we
were one of the attractions. One time as I was wandering on a break, I
overheard a family asking out loud where the
Legos® were. It made my heart warm!
SOME THINGS BUILT AT THE 1997 MARIN COUNTY FAIR!
thanks Jeff Horstman
Go Back to Weird Richard
Copyright© 1996 1997, 1998, 1999 by Richard Wright for PCS Education Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved