Although Eric Lynn retired from the military after twenty years of service, the expertise he cultivated during his time in cyber programming stuck with him. The desire to pass along these important skills to the next generation prompted him to search for local STEM activities for his kids. What he found was a need to provide fun, mentally stimulating extracurricular learning activities for local children. So, he and his fiancé, Lacey Grappin, began exploring options and clicked with the Snapology model.
“I did some research online and they talked about STEM-based, Lego brick learning,” explains Eric. “I flew out to Dallas to learn more about the different classes and things they offer, and I fell in love with that concept.”
Through Snapology, kids ages 3 to 14 have access to age-appropriate classes, summer camps, workshops, and party activities to stimulate and challenge them mentally. Classes vary in length from one-time, two-hour classes to longer 6-to-8-week classes. As a mobile business, Snapology offers activities at different locations around the CSRA.
“The activities we offer are a little more cerebral in nature, but we have so much fun that the kids don't really realize that they're learning a lot,” says Eric. “We use the SPIKE Prime Lego kits, which are robotics kits that come with motors, and via Bluetooth hook it up to an iPad and then the kids do block programming. When you add enough of those block commands that build on top of each other, that turns into a program and the kids end up with this programmable robot. They’ve built robots, dogs, scorpions, and more.”
Other activities include creative builds where kids use their imagination in a structured environment to build things like cars, characters like superheroes, or mosaics using the bricks. “With mosaics, we use the green base pads and instead of building up, you build one brick high and create a picture with the Legos based on the colors,” he says. “The kids think that's a lot of fun too.”
For kids who want to share these fun activities with friends and want to choose the theme, Snapology offers a party option. “We work with parents to see what their child is interested in, such as Minecraft or Pokemon, things like that. Then, we provide the activities for the party,” explains Eric.
On the horizon, Eric hopes to get Snapology workshops into schools for on-site field trips and to offer activities as after-school programs. When a school hosts Snapology for afterschool STEM programs, Snapology donates part of the fees collected back to the school’s PTA, making it a winning combination.
Ultimately, Eric’s goal with Snapology is to let kids have fun while learning a new skill. He says, “The biggest joy is getting to see the kids as they learn, especially with robotics, because as they work and finish a program, their eyes light up when they see that they created this from scratch, one piece at a time.”
For more information, visit snapology.com/georgia-evans or call 706-261-5614. Also follow Snapology of Evans, GA on Facebook and Instagram for updates on upcoming classes.
The activities we offer are a little more cerebral in nature, but we have so much fun that the kids don't really realize that they're learning a lot.