Engage

Launch the Engage Section

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

ACTS	ASKS
Show students each of the tasks for Power Up Competition. Have students share what they notice about the new game elements and how they move on the Field. You may want to have a Hero Robot and the Stage 3 Field (or an image of the Field Google Doc / .pptx / .pdf) Show students the power lines, and move them by hand, to help prompt ideas about how to use the robot to raise them to a standing position. Show students the fallen trees, and move them by hand, to help prompt ideas about how to use the robot to raise them to a standing position. Note student responses on the board. You may want to leave them visible to reference throughout the Lab. Have students brainstorm ideas for raising game elements using the Hero Robot. You may want to have a robot and the the Stage 3 Field, or the tiles containing each game object available for a visual aid, as students share ideas about how to complete the tasks.	In Lab 2, we used our Hero Robots to raise the roof on the Emergency Shelter. In this Lab, we are going to build on what we learned, to be able to lift other game elements on the Field in the Power Up Competition. Let's take a look at them, and talk about how we might drive the Hero Robot and use the arm on the robot to complete each task. Let's take a look at the fallen power lines. What do you notice about them? What do you notice about how the power lines move when you lift a post as compared to the lines themselves? How do you think you can use the robot to lift them? Now let's look at the fallen trees. What is similar about the trees, as compared to the power lines? What is different? How can you use that information to help you when you are driving your robot to lift them? What do you remember about working as a team in the previous Labs, that could help you be a good teammate in this competition? How do you think you will need to drive your Hero Robot to raise all of the game elements in this competition?

ACTS

ASKS

Show students each of the tasks for Power Up Competition. Have students share what they notice about the new game elements and how they move on the Field. You may want to have a Hero Robot and the Stage 3 Field (or an image of the Field Google Doc / .pptx / .pdf)
Show students the power lines, and move them by hand, to help prompt ideas about how to use the robot to raise them to a standing position.
Show students the fallen trees, and move them by hand, to help prompt ideas about how to use the robot to raise them to a standing position.
Note student responses on the board. You may want to leave them visible to reference throughout the Lab.
Have students brainstorm ideas for raising game elements using the Hero Robot. You may want to have a robot and the the Stage 3 Field, or the tiles containing each game object available for a visual aid, as students share ideas about how to complete the tasks.

In Lab 2, we used our Hero Robots to raise the roof on the Emergency Shelter. In this Lab, we are going to build on what we learned, to be able to lift other game elements on the Field in the Power Up Competition. Let's take a look at them, and talk about how we might drive the Hero Robot and use the arm on the robot to complete each task.
Let's take a look at the fallen power lines. What do you notice about them? What do you notice about how the power lines move when you lift a post as compared to the lines themselves? How do you think you can use the robot to lift them?
Now let's look at the fallen trees. What is similar about the trees, as compared to the power lines? What is different? How can you use that information to help you when you are driving your robot to lift them?
What do you remember about working as a team in the previous Labs, that could help you be a good teammate in this competition?
How do you think you will need to drive your Hero Robot to raise all of the game elements in this competition?

Getting the Students Ready to Build

Before we can drive our Hero Robots to raise fallen trees and power lines, 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

InstructInstruct students to join their group, and have them complete the Robotics Roles & Routines sheet. Use the Suggested Role Responsibilities slide in the Lab 3 Image Slideshow as a guide for students to complete this sheet.

Instruct students that the competition 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.
DistributeDistribute build instructions for the Competition Base 2.0 to each team. Journalists should gather the materials on the checklist to begin.

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 to build the Competition Advanced 2.0 Hero Robot. Journalists should gather the materials on the checklist.

Competition Advanced 2.0 Hero Robot
FacilitateFacilitate the building process.
- Builders and Journalists should begin building based on their responsibilities in the Lab 3 Image Slideshow.
- Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to have students build the Competition Base 2.0, 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?
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

Students can test that their Competition Base 2.0 is built correctly before moving on to the Competition Advanced portion of the build. Have them power on the Brain, connect to VEXcode GO and open the Drive tab. Use the joysticks to move the robot forward or backward. If the robot is built correctly, it should drive successfully when it is connected to VEXcode GO.
Remind students that forward/reverse is based on the location and position of the robot. If the Hero Robot is backwards on the Field with the fork facing the student, moving the controls forward will drive the robot towards the student, not towards the Field.
If the robot does not respond, try disconnecting and reconnecting the Brain and try again. This may happen if too much time passes between turns driving the robot.

Facilitation Strategies

Allow extra time in the Engage section if you choose to have students build Stage 3 of the City Technology Rebuild Field together with you. This stage builds two trees and the power lines to add to the Field. All elements from Stage 2 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 - 12 of the Tree build instructions for the first tree
- Team B completes steps 13 - 22 of the Tree build instructions for the first tree
- Team C completes steps 1 - 12 of the Tree build instructions for the second tree
- Team D completes steps 13 - 22 of the Tree build instructions for the second tree
- Team E completes steps 1 - 8 of the Power Lines build instructions
- Team F completes steps 9 - 18 of the Power Lines build instructions
- Team G completes steps 19 - 27 of the Power Lines build instructions
- Team H completes steps 28 - 35 of the Power Lines build instructions
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.
- You may want to allow students time to make modifications to their robot, in order to complete the various game tasks more easily. In this case, allow students time to iterate on the changes they are making to their Hero Robot, using the engineering design process.
- Since time will be a factor in the competition, guide students to iterate on their robot design with a focus on what will make them better able to lift game objects more quickly, if they are looking for a place to start or a guiding factor for making a design decision.
To time each match in the competition, you can use the built-in timer within the Drive tab in VEXcode GO, or the built-in timer on the VEX GO Leaderboard. You can choose to be the timer for a match, or have the driver on the team start and stop the time. No matter how you choose to keep time, be sure that students know what method will be used, so that they can participate correctly when their competition time arrives.

The timer in the Drive tab in VEXcode GO
- To use the timer in the Drive tab in VEXcode GO, select 'Start Timer' when driving begins. This button will change to 'Stop Timer' as the timer is running. As soon as the third task is completed in the competition, select 'Stop Timer' to see the final time. Once the time is recorded, students can select 'Reset Timer' to get ready for their next match.
- Note: Selecting 'Reset Timer' resets the timer to zero, and will erase the time that has elapsed. If students reset the timer while driving, their final match run time will not be accurate.
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 Power Up 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.

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