A Brick, Reinvented: teacher key

How Plastic Toy Bricks Are Made, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. The toy brick did not appear all at once: an English designer, a Danish carpenter's family and a wobbly first version all shaped it. This book follows the idea and the plastic into the factory, where bricks are molded, cooled and checked, and ends with the hard search for greener materials.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What problem did the bricks have before the tubes were added?
   • Models were wobbly (answer)
   • They were too heavy
   • They had no studs
2. Where is the color added at LEGO?
   • In the silos
   • At the molding machine (answer)
   • In the paper bags
3. Why does a brick one stud wide have a thin bar instead of a tube?
   • It is made of different plastic
   • The bar is cheaper
   • There is no room for a tube (answer)
4. In this book, what does translucent mean?
   • Lets some light through (answer)
   • Very hard
   • Bright red
5. What happens right after cold water cools the plastic in the mold?
   • The bricks are buried
   • The mold opens and the bricks drop onto a belt (answer)
   • The plastic is poured back into the silos

Words

• interlocking: fitting together
• trademark: protected name
• translucent: lets light through
• pigments: color powders
• deformed: changed shape