Image by flickr user GuillermoImage by 20080719legos.jpg You're never too old to play with Legos, and you can even learn about some pretty serious urban design concepts with them.

The Charleston Civic Design Center brought together a dozen 11- to 15-year-olds to learn about city design as part of its City Challenge program. The goal of the program is to give students an idea of the principles of urban design. The kids then get the chance to go wild with Legos, building model cities.

From The Post and Courier:

In the City Challenge, center leaders want youth to consider "the values of good city-making and how to achieve those things," (center director Michael Maher) said.

Joey Moody, 11, and Tre McLean, 14, said they learned a lot about transportation when they were designing their Lego city. It's very important and very expensive, they said.

All of the students had to include single-family houses and businesses in their cities. But they also had to include facilities for education, parks and affordable housing. And they had to connect those components with roads, trains and bike paths.

The Post and Courier also has video from the challenge.