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Teacher Portal

Engage

Launch the Engage Section

ACTS is what the teacher will do and ASKS is how the teacher will facilitate.

ACTS ASKS
  1. Show students the Landslide Tile from the Stage 4 Field, or the image of the Landslide Tile in the Image Slideshow (Google Doc / .pptx / .pdf) to help prompt ideas. Once students have shared some ideas of their own, use your hand to demonstrate how pressing in on the green beams on the front of the structure on the tile will cause the platform to tilt and the rocks to slide onto the Tile.
  2. Take students' suggestions about how the Hero Robot might need to move in order to trigger the landslide.
  3. Show students the rocks, or the image of the rocks in the Image Slideshow (Google Doc / .pptx / .pdf) to help prompt ideas. Take student suggestions about how they might use the Hero Robot to move the rocks to the Red Tile.
  4. Note student responses on the board. You may want to leave them visible to reference throughout the lab.
  5. Have students brainstorm ideas for how to trigger the landslide and move the rocks to the Red Tile using the Hero Robot. You may want to have a robot, the landslide Tile, and rocks available for a visual aid, as students share ideas about how to accomplish the competition tasks.
  1. One of the tasks for this Lab is to drive the Hero Robot to trigger a landslide. What do you think has to happen on this Tile in order to trigger the landslide? 
  2. How do you think you would need to drive your robot in order to trigger the landslide?
  3. As you can see, now that the landslide has been triggered, there are rocks that we must move in order to make the roads in the city safely passable. You are going to need to drive your Hero Robot to move them over to the Red Tile, where they will be out of the way of the citizens. How do you think the Hero Robot might need to move in order to successfully move the rocks over to the Red Tile?
  4. What is something you remember about how your team worked together in the last Lab, that could help you be successful in this one? 
  5. How do you think you will need to drive your Hero Robot to score points in this competition?

Getting the Students Ready to Build

Before we can drive our Hero Robots to trigger the landslide and clear the rocks, we first need to build our competition Hero Robot.

Note: If you have already built your Competition Advanced 2.0 Hero Robots, you can skip this section. 

Facilitate the Build

  1. InstructInstruct students to join their group, and have them complete the Robotics Roles & Routines sheet. Use the Suggested Role Responsibilities slide in the Lab 4 Image slide show as a guide for students to complete this sheet.

    Instruct students that the Hero Robot is built in two stages. First, they will build the Competition Base 2.0, then they will add onto that to build the Competition Advanced 2.0 Hero Robot.

  2. DistributeDistribute build instructions for the Competition Base 2.0 to each team. Journalists should gather the materials on the checklist for the Competition Base 2.0 to begin.

    Front view of a completed VEX GO Competition Base Hero Robot build.
    Competition Base 2.0

    As students complete the Competition Base 2.0, have them check in with you. Then, distribute build instructions for the Competition Advanced 2.0 Hero Robot. Students will add onto the Competition Base 2.0 to build the Competition Advanced 2.0 Hero Robot. Journalists should gather the materials on the checklist. 

    Front view of a completed VEX GO Competition Advanced Hero Robot build.
    Competition Advanced 2.0 Hero Robot
  3. FacilitateFacilitate the building process.
    • Builders and Journalists should begin building based on their responsibilities in the Lab 4 Image Slideshow. 
    • Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to have students build the Competition Base, then stop, and resume building during the next class time. 
    • Circulate around the room to help students with building or reading instructions where needed. Remind students that they can orient the pieces they are holding and building with the same way they are shown in the build instructions, in order to help them be successful in their build.
    • Engage students' prior knowledge by asking questions about how this build is similar or different to other VEX GO builds that they have used before, like the Code Base. Why do they think that is? What might the competition robot be able to do that is new or different?
  4. OfferOffer positive reinforcement for teams that are working well together, taking turns, and using respectful language as they are building. If there are particular teams or students that excel at building, offer them the opportunity to help teams that may be struggling with the build.

Teacher Troubleshooting

Facilitation Strategies

Allow extra time in the Engage section if you choose to have students build Stage 4 of the City Technology Rebuild Field together with you. This stage builds the Landslide Tile to add to the Field. All elements from previous stages stay intact, and are part of this stage as well. To help students stay organized, divide up build instructions by team. Suggestions for how to do this include: 

  • Team A completes steps 1-13 of the Landslide Tile
  • Team B completes steps 14-27
  • Team C completes steps 28-40
  • Team D completes steps 41-53
  • Team E completes steps 54-66
  • Team F completes steps 67-79
  • Team G completes steps 80-91
  • Team H completes the rocks.
  • Allow time during Play Part 1 for all students to take a turn driving the Hero Robot on the Field. Remind students that they can change the controls to find a drive mode that works best for them. 
    • Tank Drive: Each joystick controls the spin of a different motor.
    • Left Arcade: One joystick that controls both motors. On the left-hand side of the screen.
    • Right Arcade: One joystick that controls both motors. On the right-hand side of the screen.
    • Split Arcade: Two joysticks. One controls left and right movements and the other controls forward and reverse movements.
  • The speed of the Hero Robot depends on how slow or quickly the controls are moved in the Drive tab. The slower the joystick is pushed, the slower the robot will move. For more information about remote control driving in VEXcode GO, read the Using the Drive Tab in VEXcode GO article.
  • Think ahead about how you want to structure the Landslide! competition. It is recommended for each team to have at least two matches to compete in, so that as many students as possible get to have the chance to be a driver in the competition. To learn more about running VEX GO classroom competitions, see this article. 
  • Encourage students to document their learning by drawing or writing about their robot, driving practice, and competition strategy. Use the Blueprint Worksheet (Google Doc / .docx / .pdf) or the Data Collection Sheet (Google Doc / .docx / .pdf) as a basic template for students to take notes. These artifacts can then be used to share student learning and progress with others in the classroom and school community on a bulletin board or student portfolio.