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 Blast Off competition, giving them an overview of all of the tasks for this Lab. Have students share their ideas about how they could use their robot to tilt the Solar Panel down, lift the Rocket Ship, move the debris from the Landing Site in order to hand place the helicopter, and end with the robot on the red tile. You may want to have a Hero Robot and the Stage 3 Field, or the tiles containing each game object, to use for demonstration, as students share ideas about how to move the sample with the robot. Show students the Solar Panel and the Rocket Ship, to help prompt ideas about how to use the robot to tilt and raise these game objects. Show students the debris, the Landing Site and the helicopter, to help prompt ideas about how to use the robot to move the debris and place the helicopter on the Landing Site. Note student responses on the board. You may want to leave them visible to reference throughout the Lab. Have students brainstorm ideas for completing the game tasks 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 tilt the Solar Panel down, lift the Rocket Ship, move the debris from the Landing Site, hand place the helicopter, and end with the robot on the red tile.	In Lab 2, we used our Hero Robots to lift samples in the Lift onto the Lab Competition. In this lab, we have several new tasks to complete in order to earn points in the Blast Off! 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 Solar Panel. What do you notice about it? How do you think you can use the robot to tilt it down? What about the Rocket Ship? This time, you need to raise it upright. How do you think you can use the robot to do that? Now let's look at the tile with the debris. what do you notice about how it moves? How might you can use the robot to move it out of the way so the helicopter can be placed on the Landing Site? 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 score points in each task of this competition?

ACTS

ASKS

Show students each of the tasks for Blast Off competition, giving them an overview of all of the tasks for this Lab. Have students share their ideas about how they could use their robot to tilt the Solar Panel down, lift the Rocket Ship, move the debris from the Landing Site in order to hand place the helicopter, and end with the robot on the red tile. You may want to have a Hero Robot and the Stage 3 Field, or the tiles containing each game object, to use for demonstration, as students share ideas about how to move the sample with the robot.
Show students the Solar Panel and the Rocket Ship, to help prompt ideas about how to use the robot to tilt and raise these game objects.
Show students the debris, the Landing Site and the helicopter, to help prompt ideas about how to use the robot to move the debris and place the helicopter on the Landing Site.
Note student responses on the board. You may want to leave them visible to reference throughout the Lab.
Have students brainstorm ideas for completing the game tasks 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 tilt the Solar Panel down, lift the Rocket Ship, move the debris from the Landing Site, hand place the helicopter, and end with the robot on the red tile.

In Lab 2, we used our Hero Robots to lift samples in the Lift onto the Lab Competition. In this lab, we have several new tasks to complete in order to earn points in the Blast Off! 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 Solar Panel. What do you notice about it? How do you think you can use the robot to tilt it down? What about the Rocket Ship? This time, you need to raise it upright. How do you think you can use the robot to do that?
Now let's look at the tile with the debris. what do you notice about how it moves? How might you can use the robot to move it out of the way so the helicopter can be placed on the Landing Site?
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 score points in each task of this competition?

Getting the Students Ready to Build

Before we can drive our Hero Robots to complete tasks in the Blast Off! Competition, 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 for the Competition Base 2.0 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 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
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

Introduce the Mars Math Expedition Competition to your students using the Mars Math Expedition PDF Storybook! The book gives a diary account of Col. Jo as part of the Mars Math Expedition crew, and contextualizes competition tasks for students through Col. Jo's experiences in a fun and engaging story.
- Read the story to students, print a copy for your classroom library, and return to the story throughout your competition cycle.
- You may want to have students create their own Expedition Logs to track their progress through competition tasks alongside Col. Jo.
Allow extra time in the Engage section if you choose to have students build Stage 3 of the Mars Math Expedition Field together with you. This stage builds the Solar Panel, the Rocket Ship, and the Landing Site 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 1-10 of the Solar Panel build instructions
- Team B completes steps 11-21 of the Solar Panel build instructions
- Team C completes steps 1-10 of the Landing Site build instructions
- Team D completes steps 1-12 of the Rocket Ship build instructions
- Team E completes steps 13-24 of the Rocket Ship build instructions
- Team F completes steps 25-37 of the Rocket Ship build instructions
- Team G completes steps 38-50 of the Rocket Ship build instructions
- Team H completes steps 1-13 of the Helicopter 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.
- Because there are a variety of game tasks in the Blast Off! Competition, encourage teams to think carefully as they are practicing about how they want to plan their competition strategy, balancing the time and difficulty it takes them to complete the tasks in order to score the most points.
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 Blast Off! 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 / .d ocx / .pdf) or the Data Collection Sheet (Google Doc / .d ocx / .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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