Building community compassion with Lego Robotics

Derec Gregory ('27, left) and Courtney St Onge ('26, right) work on their Lego creations on March 5, 2026. Photo courtesy of Paul McKean.

Assistant professor of data science Kristen Gore led a new class titled Lego Robotics this spring semester. This class is not just about Legos and data science, but about learning how to be a teacher and understanding what it means to be a part of an educational community. 

Throughout the semester, Gore’s students met with elementary school students from Bush and Auburn Elementary for a total of nine sessions, collaborating to build amusement park-themed Lego creations. 

The kids were first shown a cartoon with a storyline that ended by asking them to build an amusement park ride. They then broke off into groups of one to three facilitated by the WU students.

Felicity Chin (’28), a student taking the class, said that she had some kids who hadn’t played with Legos until the class or were not confident to play with them. She learned “how to patiently encourage them and guide them towards answers without just giving it to them,” she said.

Once the Lego set was built, the Willamette students plugged it into a computer, where the kids did point-and-drag coding. By the end, they had a fully automated Lego amusement park ride. 

Assistant Dean for Civic Engagement Tommy Van Cleave worked with Gore to make this class possible through outreach to the elementary schools. He said that the class “is not just about Legos — it's also about developing the lenses for understanding the context of who our community is.” He said that this is why it’s important for students to get an in-depth understanding of educational and local history. 

Van Cleave wants Willamette students to understand what it means to be part of the Salem community and to be good neighbors.

“Whether you are going to be a data scientist, or an accountant, or a nonprofit organization leader, you still have to develop the skills of empathy and compassion because that’s what being a neighbor and being in a community is all about,” he said. 

Gore said that many of the Willamette students in this class came to know data science from their own unique angles, seeing how data science is beneficial to society in their own way. She emphasized that this course intends to allow this same experience for the younger kids. 

“Studies show that early childhood experiences with math, science and engineering are critical in framing how a child sees not only the field but also how a child sees themselves in that field,” Gore explained. “Many people come to dislike math because they had a negative experience early in their life. A lot of literature suggests that seventh grade is when people have made their decision on whether or not they are willing to pursue a STEM career.”

This is why she hopes this class, which she plans to continue every spring semester, creates a positive experience of STEM for the young children and that through the Willamette students, the children will grow more confident.

 Her goal is for the Willamette students to “see the importance of service learning and realize the impact that they can have through simple acts like spending time with kids and showing them that STEM is for everyone.”