Skip to main content
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. Have students share ideas about how they could apply what they learned in Lab 1 to the tasks of this Lab – removing the supplies from the Fire Station, raising the Emergency Shelter roof, and delivering them to the orange square.
  2. Show students the Fire Station, or the image of the Fire Station (Google Doc / .pptx / .pdf), and how the supplies are located inside to help prompt ideas.
  3. Show students the Emergency Shelter, or the image of the Emergency Shelter (Google Doc / .pptx / .pdf). Guide students to notice how the roof is positioned to prompt ideas about how they could to use the robot to raise it.
  4. Guide students to notice the orange tile inside the shelter, to help aid discussion about placing the supplies on the square. 
  5. Note student responses on the board. You may want to leave them visible to reference throughout the Lab.
  6. Have students brainstorm ideas about how they will drive their Hero Robot to remove the supplies from the Fire Station, raise the Emergency Shelter roof and deliver the supplies to the orange square. You may want to have a robot and the Fire Station and Emergency Shelter Tiles available for a visual aid, as students share ideas about how to accomplish the tasks of the Raise the Roof Competition.
  1. In Lab 1, you drove your Hero Robot to remove medicine from the Dock and deliver it to the Hospital in the Hospital Help Competition. In this Lab, you are going to deliver supplies from the Fire Station to the Emergency Shelter, but in order to safely deliver them, you will need to raise the roof of the Emergency Shelter, which has been damaged. Using what you learned in Lab 1, how do you think you might move your Hero Robot to deliver supplies and raise the roof?
  2. Let's take a closer look at the supplies. What do you notice about how they are positioned in the Fire Station? How do you think you will need to use the Hero Robot to remove them?
  3. Now let's look at the Emergency Shelter. What do you notice about the roof? How will you need to move your Hero Robot in order to raise it?
  4. In the Raise the Roof Competition, you must deliver the supplies onto the orange square in the Shelter. What do you think might be challenging about this? 
  5. What do you remember about working as a team in Lab 1, that could help you be a good teammate in this competition? 
  6. How do you think you will need to drive your Hero Robot to score points for all three tasks in the Raise the Roof competition?

Getting the Students Ready to Build

Before we can drive our Hero Robots to the Fire Station and Emergency Shelter, 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 2 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.

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

    Competition Advanced 2.0 Hero Robot
  3. FacilitateFacilitate the building process.
    • Builders and Journalists should begin building based on their responsibilities in the Lab 2 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?
  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 2 of the City Technology Rebuild Field together with you. This stage builds the Fire Station and Emergency Shelter to add to the Field. All elements from Stage 1 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 1-10 of the Fire Station 
    • Team B completes steps 11-21 of the Fire Station 
    • Team C completes steps 22-30 of the Fire Station 
    • Team D completes steps 31-42 of the Fire Station
    • Team E completes steps 1-13 of the Emergency Shelter
    • Team F completes steps 14 - 25 of the Emergency Shelter
    • Team G completes steps 26 - 38 of the Emergency Shelter
    • Team H completes steps 39-40 of the Emergency Shelter, and builds the Supplies
  • 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 have students practice just lifting and placing the supplies, to practice controlling the arm motor with the Drive tab in VEXcode GO. The arm can move quickly, so remind students that precision is important as they are trying to place objects so that they do not fall.
  • 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 Raise the Roof 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.