Lesson video

Hi there everybody.

Welcome to your Design and Technology lesson for today.

My name is Mr. Booth.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Today we are going to look at the work of Ole Kirk Kristiansen.

Now you might not know who Ole Kirk Kristiansen is, but he's very famous for making toys.

He's also famous for making toys outta plastics or what we call polymers.

Now, what I want you to do is as we go through this lesson, is try and guess who you think Ole Kirk Kristiansen is, and which very famous toy company he founded.

Don't worry, I will tell you at some point.

Now this lesson forms part of the products and people inspirational design unit, 'cause Ole Kirk Kristiansen is certainly a very influential figure in the world of design and technology.

Today's outcome, I want you to be able to understand how injection molding is used to form polymer products.

Now we've got two terms there, injection molding and polymers, that you might not have come across before.

So let's have a look at those, 'cause they're part of our keywords.

So the first one is polymers, natural or man-made materials that include plastics.

And we'll talk about that a bit later on in our second learning cycle.

And then we also have injection molding.

And this is a method of shaping polymers, making plastic products.

And injection molding is actually one of the most popular ways that we make our plastic products.

And then finally, we have liquid.

Very important.

This is a material that can flow and take the shape of a container.

And it's important that plastic is a liquid when we are making products, so that we can make products really well.

We have two learning cycles today.

The first one is all about Ole Kirk Kristiansen.

So let's take a look at who Ole really is.

So Ole Kirk Kristiansen was a Danish carpenter, an inventor, and a very successful businessman.

He began his career making toys from wood, but later, began using plastic.

Now can you think of any Danish toy companies that are very successful, that you probably have played with at some point in your lives? Pause the video now.

Have a discussion with a person next to you or have a think on your own, and let's see if you can come up with any ideas.

So did you think of anything? Well, Ole Kirk Kristiansen is very famous for founding the Lego toy company.

Did you get that? If you did? Well done.

Let's have a look at his childhood.

So he was born on the 7th of April in 1891 in a small village near Billund in Denmark, and you can see a map of where Denmark is right there.

He lived with his father, who was a farm laborer, and his mother and 12 brothers and sisters.

So very busy household.

As a child, Ole Kirk Kristiansen worked on farms to help support his family, but he did receive a basic high school education.

In his early career, at the age of just 14, he began working as an apprentice in his older brother's carpentry business.

And you can see him there, in the carpentry business.

Following this apprenticeship, he spent some time in the military.

He attended Haslev Technical School and traveled to Germany and Norway, working as a carpenter.

And in 1916, he finally settled in Billund, Denmark, to set up his own carpentry shop, his own business.

His early woodworking businesses produced high-quality wooden products such as household items, furniture and tools for the local community.

And he also restored and built houses, churches, and other wooden framed structures in the local area.

So he was obviously a very talented maker, but he faced challenges.

We all face challenges in our life, and Ole Kirk Kristiansen also faced some challenges.

The first setback was in 1924, when his workshop and his home were burnt down in an accidental fire, but he didn't give up.

He took this as an opportunity and ended up expanding his business by building an even larger workshop and a bigger home himself, using the skills he'd learned throughout his life as a carpenter.

He suffered further setbacks as well.

In the 1930s, there was the Great Depression, and unemployment was rife throughout Denmark.

And the lack of money and the decline in business meant that he had to let a lot of his workers go.

And he started making simple wooden toys instead.

But this was actually the turning point for Ole Kirk Kristiansen.

In 1932, now he was focusing purely on wooden toys.

He founded a new business called Lego.

Now Lego is a shortened version of the Danish words leg godt, which means play well.

How nice is that? And he wanted to make high quality wooden toys that helped to support children's development.

Ole Kirk Kristiansen then moved on to plastic products.

After World War II, traditional materials such as wood were not readily available.

A lot was used during the war, which meant that wood actually became very expensive, and manufacturers were looking for cheaper alternatives to make their products out of, and plastic was one of these.

Now, Ole Kirk Kristiansen bought a plastic injection molding machine in 1947 and began producing plastic toys.

And that was very early to start making toys out of plastic.

Great decision by Ole Kirk Kristiansen.

The company then spent the next few years developing the design of an interlocking plastic brick that could be stacked together.

How fantastic is that? So a quick check for understanding.

Lots of information about Ole Kirk Kristiansen there.

What type of machine did Kristiansen use to make plastic toys? Was it A, injection folding? Was it B, injection holding? Or was it C, injection molding? Pause the video now, have a go at this, and come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course C, injection molding.

That's what he started making his Lego bricks out of.

And then finally, success.

Now you could say actually that Ole Kirk Kristiansen was successful throughout his life.

But in 1958, the Lego bricks we know were patented.

They finally figured out the design and that was it.

It was patented.

Sadly, Ole Kirk Kristiansen passed away in March of that year at the age of 66.

How sad is that? But at least he managed to bring that legacy into toys by developing the Lego brick.

His son, Godtfred, took over the business and continued to expand it until his death in 1995.

But the Lego company is still owned by the Kristiansen family.

So let's have a little look at a timeline of Ole Kirk Kristiansen's life.

So he was born in 1891.

He opened his first carpentry shop, his first business in 1916.

In 1932, he founded the Lego Company.

In 1947, being a real forward thinker, he began using injection molding to make plastic toys.

And then in 1958, the Lego brick design was patented.

And unfortunately, in the same year, he also died.

So another check for understanding, which event forced manufacturers to start using plastic to make products.

Was it A, the Great Depression? Was it B, World War I? Was it C, the great fire of London? Or was it D, World War II? Pause the video now, have a go at this and come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course World War II.

Well done.

And of course, World War II, after that, in Denmark, there was very little wood or wood was very expensive, so they were looking for alternatives, and that alternative turned out to be plastic.

So now, time for your first task.

So as we know, Ole Kirk Kristiansen began his career as a carpenter producing wooden products, moved on to wooden toys and eventually, plastic toys.

I want you to discuss how World War II led Ole Kirk Kristiansen to develop his famous plastic yellow bricks, based on all the information that we've learned in this learning cycle.

Have some great discussions, pause the video now, and come back to me when you've completed them.

So how did you get on? I'm sure you had some fantastic discussions.

You might have discussed some of these points.

After World War II, there was a shortage of traditional materials such as wood for manufacturing.

Manufacturers such as Ole Kirk Kristiansen started using cheaper plastic alternatives.

He also bought his first injection molding machine to shape toys made from plastic, and one of the plastic toys he's created was a plastic brick, which he developed into his famous product, which is what Lego is famous for now.

Well done with that task, let's move on.

So we're now onto our next learning cycle, injection molding and polymers.

Now we know a little bit about injection molding, 'cause we've learned that Ole Kirk Kristiansen used injection molding to make his Lego bricks, even in the 1950s.

But we also need to learn a little bit about polymers.

First of all, polymers are found in lots of natural materials.

They form part of the structure.

They're building blocks.

Polymers can be manmade.

Plastic is a manmade polymer, and the term polymer is more scientifically accurate when talking about materials.

So what I mean by that is, as you go into secondary school, if you are in your science lessons or your design of technology lessons, we're probably gonna talk about plastic, and we're gonna say the term polymer instead.

So my little clicker I've got in my hand here, which is forwarding on this presentation as I work through it, is actually a polymer product.

Yes, it's plastic, but the correct term, the more scientific correct term is a polymer.

And actually another product, which is one of the most wide uses of polymers is of course plastic bottles.

Now, polymers can be colored and shaped to make lots of different products, and this is a perfect opportunity to prove that.

So what you are going to do, is you're gonna look around the room you're in, could be your classroom, you could be working at home.

And what I want you to do is identify all the polymer, the plastic, products that you can see.

Count how many you can see, just from where you are sat right now.

Pause the video, have a go at this, come back to me when you've got a number.

So how many did you find? I'm sure you found absolutely loads.

Well, I found loads as well, just from looking around from where I am, speaking to you now, recording this video.

There are absolutely loads of polymers just in the vicinity of where I am.

Now, there are many different ways to shape polymers, including injection molding.

Injection molding is probably the most popular that we use today.

Now injection molding involves heating a polymer to a liquid.

So making it into a liquid and then injecting it or squirting it into a mold, and allowing it to cool and harden.

And that mold will be the shape of whatever product you are trying to make, such as a building brick.

And that's where it gets the term injection molding, 'cause we're injecting a liquid material into a mold to make it into a different shape.

So let's just have a look at the process of injection molding quickly.

So injection molding machine uses liquid polymer, melted plastic.

It heats up the plastic until it becomes a liquid.

It then forces, injects the liquid polymer into a mold.

Remember, that mold will be the shape of whatever product you're trying to make.

The liquid polymer is then cooled until it hardens into a solid shape, and then the solid polymer is now the same shape as the mold, it's the product you want.

It can then be removed from the mold, put in a bag, sent around the world to be made into wonderful creations by kids all over the world.

So a quick check for understanding.

What state does the polymer need to be in, before it is injected into molds? Is it A, a gas? B, a liquid, or C, a solid? Pause the video now, come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course a liquid.

We need it to flow, so it's gotta be a liquid.

Now injection molding can be used to make polymer products with complicated shapes and details.

Here are some examples.

A games controller.

So if you play games at home, your games controller probably has been injection molded.

It's made of a polymer and it's been injection molded.

It's also got lots of complex shapes on that.

And from the outside it's lovely and smooth, but you've got all the different areas for buttons, and if you actually opened it up, you would see a really complex internal structure.

We've also got here, lots of kitchen utensils are also injection molded.

So for example, here, we have quite a complex shape with a fruit juicer, which even has holes in it, all from injection molding.

Now this is another good point for you to have a look at some of the products that are around you now.

So what I want you to do, of all those different products you identified earlier, I want you to find one that is complex.

So you're gonna pause the video now, find a polymer product that has a complex shape, which is probably injection molding.

Go and have a look for it, pause the video now, come back to me when you think you've got a product.

So did you find one? So it's gotta be a polymer and it's gotta be complex.

And the chances are, it's been injection molding.

I found one, I've got my mouse, my computer mouse nearby me.

And that's quite complicated, it's made of a polymer.

So the chances are, all the pieces of that mouse have been injection molded.

I'm sure you found one as well.

Now the Lego company use injection molding to make Lego bricks because it's a very fast process for making millions of bricks.

And Lego make a lot of bricks.

They make a huge range of different shapes alongside the classic brick shape, all through injection molding.

Now there's absolutely no point in me telling you how many bricks they make every single year, because it changes every single year, because Lego keeps growing as a company.

But you know what, that'll be a really good number to know, because it'll probably shock you, how many they make.

So this is another good opportunity.

Pause the video, go and research how many Lego bricks do Lego make every single year.

Pause the video now, go and find that number, come back to me when you've got it.

So did you find out the number? Yep.

That many.

I bet that shocked you.

Now using this process ensures all the pieces are exactly the same shape and size needed to allow them to fit together.

The Lego brick is actually a complex design, even though it's quite old, but it's got to use injection molding to make sure that every single brick fits together.

Now let's have a look.

Laura and Andeep are looking at the shape of some polymer building bricks and how they fit together.

So first of all, Andeep says the shape of the inside of the brick allows the studs of the other brick to fit inside it, locking them together.

And you can see how it all fits together.

And in a moment, you're gonna get a chance to look at these closely.

And you've probably never looked at a Lego brick as closely as this.

But what you're gonna be able to do is have the opportunity to look at that, and I want you to look really closely at all those features that allow these two bricks to fit together.

And of course, that would not be possible if it wasn't injection molded.

So now they start to stack the bricks on top of each other to build different structures.

And Laura said that we've made the letter A for Andeep's name, isn't that brilliant? And Andeep's even told us a really interesting fact.

He said that, "Did you know the bricks made in the 1960s will fit together with the bricks made today?" So if you've got any bricks lying around at home that might belong to someone who lived in the 1960s, with a child in the 1960s, and you've got some bricks that were bought recently, have a go at that.

And it's amazing how well they fit together.

It shows a great design and also shows injection molding works.

So true or false? Injection molding gives a random size and shape to interlocking bricks.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course false, but why? Once again, pause the video, come up with a reason why, come back to me when you've got your answer.

And of course, it's because injection molding produces exactly the same precise size and shape every single time.

This is important for interlocking bricks to fit together really well.

So we're now on to task B, your final task for today, and we've got a few sections to this.

The first thing you're going to do is you're gonna explore the polymer building bricks, look at how they fit together, try fitting different shape/size bricks together.

Then what I want you to do is let's build some structures, and now you can build different structures.

You could do a building, a vehicle, the first letter of your name or all three of those.

And whilst you are doing this, I want you to discuss why injection molding is used to make the building bricks.

I really hope you enjoy this task.

Have some great discussions.

Come back to me when you've completed it.

Pause the video now.

How did you get on? Did you build lots of complex structures? Did you have a really good look at those Lego bricks? And did you have some fantastic discussions? I'm sure you did.

Well, as we can see, Andeep and Laura used the bricks to make the first letters of their names.

They also had a great discussion.

Andeep said, "Injection molding can be used to make polymer products with complicated shapes and details." And Laura said, "Using this process ensures all the pieces are the exact size and shape needed to allow them fit to fit together." And I'm sure you had discussions that were similar.

Well done.

And that brings us to the end of this lesson.

So let's have a quick summary.

First of all, Ole Kirk Kristiansen started making wooden toys, which then moved on to plastic toys and eventually, Lego bricks.

Plastics are known as polymers.

The term polymer is more scientifically accurate when talking about materials.

Polymers can be reformed, they can be changed in shape using injection molding to create complex products such as games controllers.

Well done today.

You've all been absolutely fantastic.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye-bye.