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Implementing VEX 123 STEM Labs

STEM Labs are designed to be the online teacher’s manual for VEX 123. Like a printed teacher’s manual, the teacher-facing content of the STEM Labs provides all of the resources, materials, and information needed to be able to plan, teach, and assess with VEX 123. The Lab Image Slideshows are the student-facing companion to this material. For more detailed information about how to implement a STEM Lab in your classroom, see the Implementing VEX 123 STEM Labs article.

Goals and Standards

Goals

Students will apply

  • How to create and start projects using the touch buttons on the 123 Robot.
  • Coding the 123 Robot to move in an intended way to complete a challenge.

Students will make meaning of

  • How a programming language is a set of rules in which symbols represent actions. For example, the arrow symbol on the “Move” button has the 123 Robot move forward one robot length. 
  • How to code the 123 Robot to solve a challenge, such as driving to letters to spell a word.

Students will be skilled at

  • Identifying behaviors using symbols on the touch buttons.
  • Creating a project with the touch buttons on the 123 Robot.
  • Sequencing button presses in a project.
  • Waking up the 123 Robot.
  • Starting a project with the touch buttons on the 123 Robot.
  • Shaking to erase a project on the 123 Robot.

Students will know

  • How to create a project using the touch buttons on the 123 Robot.
  • How one button press represents one behavior for the 123 Robot.
  • How complex behaviors can be created by sequencing button presses together.

Objective(s)

Objective

  1. Students will explain how the symbols on the touch buttons represent behaviors for the 123 Robot.
  2. Students will demonstrate how to use the touch buttons to build a project that has the 123 Robot solve a challenge.

Activity

  1. Students will discuss how each of the touch buttons has the 123 Robot move or play a sound, as they test each of the buttons individually in Engage. Then in the Mid-Play Break, they will describe how the symbols on the touch buttons represent the 123 Robot behaviors that are executed when the button is pressed.
  2. In Play Part 1, students will write a simple word, and use the touch buttons on the 123 Robot to code their robots to drive over each letter, so that they can sound out the word to read it with their 123 Robots. Then in Play Part 2, they will code their 123 Robots to read the words written by other groups.

Assessment

  1. In Share, students will describe how the symbols on the touch buttons represent the 123 Robot behaviors that are executed when the button is pressed. They will also discuss how they used this understanding to create their projects in Play.
  2. In the Play sections, students will be able to successfully sequence touch button presses to code the 123 Robot to complete the Lab challenge — to drive over each letter of the word on their 123 Tile. They can show their projects in the Share section.

Connections to Standards

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