LEGO Civics, Sustainability & Global Citizenship.
TIE Academy's longest-running signature program — rebuilt for the AI era. Students use one of childhood's most beloved tools to tackle the hardest real-world problems: economics, governance, climate resilience, sustainability, global cooperation, and AI ethics.
Quick reference
- Target age
- Ages 4–14 (three differentiated levels)
- Primary audience
- Elementary and middle school students; parent-child pairs (youngest level)
- Class type
- In-person (camps); hybrid (school-year modules)
- Language
- English immersion (bilingual Korean/English support for ages 4–8)
- Session format
- 4-day intensive camps OR 12-week school-year modules
- Program levels
- Introductory Student-Only · Introductory Parent & Me · Advanced Future City Incubator
- Certification
- TIE Academy Future City Innovator Certificate
Three levels
Introductory — Student-Only (English Immersion)
Ages 5–11
Students build a full LEGO city from the ground up — homes, businesses, government buildings, green spaces — while simultaneously simulating a civic economy. They earn, save, pay taxes, invest, and manage a custom city currency called Qubes. They run elections, propose laws, navigate city-wide emergencies (energy crises, budget shortfalls, climate disasters), and present their city at a final Future City Showcase.
Introductory — Parent & Me (Bilingual)
Ages 4–8 with one parent
Collaborative parent-child building activities conducted bilingually (English first, Korean supported). Focus is on family learning, communication, early financial concepts, and future literacy — designed around Piaget's concrete operational and preoperational stages.
Advanced — Future City Incubator
Ages 9–14
Deep systems thinking, economics, AI integration, and climate resilience. Students use GenAI tools to design, model, and simulate urban futures. The program culminates in a public City Expo where students defend their proposals as if presenting to city planners and investors.
Research foundation
The program is built on a rigorous multi-theory foundation: Experiential Learning (Kolb), Authentic Learning (Brown, Collins, Duguid), Play-Based Learning (Vygotsky, Piaget), Embodied Learning, Socio-Constructivism, and Critical Consciousness (Freire). Students learn by doing, collaborating, and reflecting — not memorizing.
2025 thematic focus areas
Climate change & resilient cities
green infrastructure, renewable energy systems, sustainable urban design
Geopolitics & global cooperation
how cities connect through trade, diplomacy, and alliances
Artificial intelligence & smart cities
integrating AI tools ethically for transportation, communication, and sustainability
Why it matters in an AI-driven world
Content memorization is no longer a competitive skill — AI can retrieve and synthesize information faster than any human. What AI cannot replace is the uniquely human capacity for creativity, ethical reasoning, empathy, collaborative negotiation, and leadership. This program is specifically engineered to develop exactly those capacities, through play and real-world civic simulation.
Skills developed
- Systems thinking — designing interconnected transportation, energy, and governance systems
- Financial literacy — earning, saving, investing, taxing, and managing public goods through the Qubes currency simulation
- Civic engagement and governance — elections, lawmaking, public policy debate
- Global citizenship — international cooperation, shared resources, cross-cultural responsibility
- AI ethics and critical thinking — navigating the opportunities and risks of smart city AI tools
- Communication and collaboration — building, negotiating, presenting, and defending ideas
What traditional schooling doesn't provide
No school subject teaches children to simultaneously be an economist, a city planner, a climate engineer, and a civic leader. This program collapses those silos and asks students to hold all of it at once — exactly the cognitive demand of the real world.
Enrollment
Request enrollment informationPremium members on the app receive a discount on enrollment. Contact TIE Academy for the current camp and module schedule.