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Cincinnati urban schools get an engineering Leg(o) up

During a kindergarten math class at Roselawn Condon School,  teachers throw around terms like schematic, fulcrum, balanced and unbalanced.

This "Language of Lego," as it's being called, is coming early for these five and six year olds to prepare them for a possible career in engineering. Roselawn Condon, a STEM school in the Cincinnati Public School District, is one of two urban schools taking part in the iSpaceLego program. The other is Hartwell Elementary.

Students Joseph Powell and William Young enthusiastically dig into their educational Lego bin and pull out the correct pieces to built a see saw. They look at the schematic and find the correct pieces to continue. They cheerfully exclaim, "We know how to do it!"

While many engineers say Legos were their favorite toy growing up, some kids in the urban school districts may not be able to afford them. That's where Ethicon and the Andrew Jergens Foundation come in. They bought educational Lego kits for Roselawn Condon and Hartwell Elementary. Students will get to  take home and keep other sets of Legos.

This will be the eighth week Roselawn Condon kindergartners have learned about Legos and various engineering principals. Principal Voll bragged about his eighth graders getting college credit for their math courses and he looks forward to these five and six year olds doing even better.

Ann Thompson has decades of journalism experience in the Greater Cincinnati market and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting.