I think one thing with engineering / building with Legos are the restrictions it imposes. It forces creative thinking, makes it so you have to think through the

I think one thing with engineering / building with Legos are the restrictions it imposes. It forces creative thinking, makes it so you have to think through the whole problem and a way to solve it with the tools available to you. This to me seems especially true if you include Technic and Mindstorms where you can start building automated machines to a certain degree. It doesn't require the mastering of wood or metal tooling but allows you to get right to the mechanical building of a machine.