Applying VEX 123

Connection to VEX 123

The 123 Robot is a great way for students to explore the connection between behavior and emotion in a safe and fun way. Since the 123 Robot cannot think or feel for itself, it needs to “act” out emotions and strategies for coping with them. This offers a wonderful opportunity for students to think more deeply about what robot behaviors are reflective of different human actions as a basis for coding their robots.

In Lab 1, students connect robot behaviors with human behaviors through the process of choosing Coder cards to use for the robot to represent out of control or in control behaviors. They gain experience using both emotional vocabulary and spatial vocabulary as they collaborate with the others in their group to build their projects and talk about how they want the 123 Robot to move to represent human actions.

In Lab 2, students build on what they learned in Lab 1 by choosing Coder cards to represent calm down strategies that they use when they need to get their behavior back in control. Students will sequence multiple calm down strategies to create a “Calm Down Code” for their 123 Robot. This gives additional practice with connecting human actions with robot behaviors, as well as visualizing each step in the sequence as students create their projects.

In the Share section of both Labs, students share their reasoning for choosing the particular actions in the sequence they’ve created for their 123 Robot, providing another opportunity for practicing the use of emotional and spatial language.