Implementing VEX GO STEM Labs

STEM Labs are designed to be the online teacher’s manual for VEX GO. 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 GO. 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 GO STEM Labs article.

Goals and Standards

Goals

Students will apply

How to use an Adaptation Claw as a mechanism to pick up objects in the classroom.

Students will make meaning of

How mechanisms are used in everyday life to make tasks easier such as using a pencil sharpener instead of sharpening your pencil by hand.
How mechanisms can be used to solve real world problems such as using the Adaptation Claw to pick up objects with limited mobility.

Students will be skilled at

Using the Adaptation Claw to effectively pick up objects of different sizes and weights in the classroom.
Using a checklist to record data while testing the ability of the Adaptation Claw to pick up items in the classroom.
Using data to make changes to the Adaptation Claw to effectively pick up one classroom object they struggled to pick up initially.
Making changes to the Adaptation Claw.

Students will know

How the Adaptation Claw functions and moves.
How to use the Adaptation Claw as a mechanism.
How the Adaptation Claw is a mechanism that can be used to help make life easier for people with limited mobility such as the elderly picking up items.

Objective(s)

Objective

Students will describe how tools or mechanisms can be used to solve real world problems.
Students will evaluate the use of the Adaptation Claw to determine if the Adaptation Claw is the appropriate tool for the task.

Activity

During Engage, students will discuss mechanisms they have seen or experienced in the real world that make things easier.
In Play Part 1, students will use a checklist to evaluate which objects can be picked up by the Adaptation Claw.

Assessment

Students will explain how the Adaptation Claw can be used in real-world applications during the Mid-Play Break. During the Share section, students will describe how a mechanism can make life easier.
In Play Part 2, students will evaluate and adapt their Adaptation Claw to successfully pick up a new object.

Connections to Standards

Showcase Standards

Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

CCSS.MATH.MP5: Use appropriate tools strategically.

How Standard is Achieved: In Play Part 1, students will test the Adaptation Claw with classroom objects like bottles or markers. Students will explain during the Mid-Play Break which objects were most appropriate for the Adaptation Claw to pick up. In Play Part 2, students will be challenged to strategically modify their Adaptation Claw so that it becomes an appropriate tool to pick up an object that may have been more difficult to pick up in Play Part 1.

Showcase Standards

International Society for Technology In Education (ISTE)

ISTE - (3) Knowledge Constructor - 3d: Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.

How Standard is Achieved: In the Engage section, students will connect their experiences with sharpening a pencil to how mechanisms help to make tasks easier. Students will have a conversation during the Mid-Play Break about grippers and other mechanisms used to pick up trash and which items from their checklist would be best picked up by the Adaptation Claw in real-world situations.

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