VEX GO - Digital Citizens - Unit Overview

Grades

3+ (Ages 8+)

Time

40 minutes per lab

Unit Essential Question(s)

How can we improve our coding projects by incorporating the needs, perspectives, and ideas of others?
How does new technology change the way people live and work?

Unit Understandings

The following concepts will be covered throughout this Unit:

Collaborating and communicating respectfully helps to create better technological solutions that meet everyone's needs
Responsible digital behavior, including the creation and management of secure passwords, is essential for maintaining safety and privacy
New technologies can change how people live and work

Lab Summary

Click on the following tabs for a summary of what the students will do and learn in each lab.

Lab 1 - Cooling Courier

Main Focus Question: How can we collaborate respectfully and responsibly to code a robot?

Students will be introduced to a scenario where people are living in a desert climate and need cooling cells in order to live comfortably because the desert is getting increasingly hot. Robots need to be used in order to transport these dangerous cooling cells to the neighborhood.
Students will build the Super Code Base.
Students will create a VEXcode GO project for their Super Code Base to drive from the factory, pick up a cooling cell at the lab, then take the cooling cell to the neighborhood.
After building and testing their projects, students will improve on their projects to deliver the cooling cells faster. They create these improvements by gathering ideas from other groups, getting permission to use those ideas, and then giving attribution to the groups whose ideas they have used in the project plan.

Lab 2 - Access Granted

Main Focus Question: How can we create and manage passwords safely and securely?

Students will continue to interact with the scenario presented in Lab 1.
Students will learn that the lab where cooling cells are held uses a password to help keep the cooling cells safe. Students must first decode the default password that was given to their robot. This password is communicated using the lights on the LED Bumper.
Students must then alter the code so they can change the password that their robot will use to enter the lab. They must ensure that their password remains safe.

Unit Standards

Unit Standards will be addressed in every Lab within the Unit.

Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA)

1B-IC-20: Seek diverse perspectives for the purpose of improving computational artifacts.

How Standard is Achieved: In Lab 1, students brainstorm and plan the path the Super Code Base needs to take in order to deliver these cooling cells. They discuss their plan with other groups and share ideas on how to make the delivery of the cooling cells quicker. The teacher facilitates these discussions so students have guidance on how to seek those differing perspectives from other groups in order to improve their VEXcode GO projects.

In Lab 2, students are decoding and then creating their own passwords. They will share with one another the techniques they use in order to remember their new passwords and also techniques for keeping their password safe. Students use those varying perspectives in order to create and remember those new passwords.

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