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Engage

Launch the Engage Section

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

ACTS ASKS
  1. Stand at the front of the class.
  2. Show a photo of a NASA space shuttle (see Lab 4 Slideshow) to the students. 
  3. Pull out different pieces from the VEX GO Kit to show the different shapes of connectors. Show the image of the different connectors that are in the Lab 4 Image Slideshow.
  4. Demonstrate how the Slide Beam and Slide Block fit together to work as one piece. Use the example image from the Lab 4 Image Slideshow.
  1. Ask the students if they have ever been inside of a car. Have them describe their surroundings using spatial language. For example, “the window is above me, the door is to the left of me…”
  2. What parts are there to a spaceship from examples you have seen? Where is the door? The windows?
    1. Using spatial vocab, have the students tell you the window or windshield is "in front" of the chair and "across" the front of the spaceship.
  3. What do you think these pieces could be used for?
  4. Why would the Slide Beam be important when building my spaceship? What could I use it for?

Getting the Students Ready to Build

Spaceships need to be stable for an Astronaut to travel to Mars. We will now get ready to build a spaceship for the Astronaut using the connectors and the Slide Beams that we saw in the example. Let’s see if our Astronaut has any special requests for their ship! Show students the Letter from the Astronaut in the Lab 4 Image Slideshow.

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

Teacher Troubleshooting

Facilitation Strategies

  • As you ask students questions, include opportunities for the students to use spatial language in each answer.
  • Offer in-the-moment observations as groups work well, and invite them to share group-work strategies with the class.
  • Create a Help-Desk for build questions. Because this Lab is focusing on students learning to use the kit, you can limit each group to a certain number of ‘Help Tickets’ for big problems. Encourage students to ask other groups for help so they can retain their Help Tickets.