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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 create and start a VEXcode GO project that makes the Code Base move forward, backward, and turn.
  • How to create and test a project that has the Code Base drive to and from multiple sites.
  • Drivetrain blocks in the correct sequence to create a project to solve a challenge.

Students will make meaning of

  • How to solve a challenge with the Code Base and VEXcode GO.

Students will be skilled at

  • Using build instructions to build the Code Base 2.0 - LED Bumper Top.
  • Connecting a Brain to a tablet or computer in VEXcode GO.
  • Saving and naming projects in VEXcode GO.
  • Adding VEXcode GO blocks to a project.
  • Sequencing blocks in a project.
  • Using Drivetrain blocks in a project to have the Code Base drive to a specific location.
  • Changing parameters in VEXcode blocks.
  • Starting and stopping a project in VEXcode GO.

Students will know

  • How scientists use rovers to collect and bury samples of soil and rock for future collection, in order to study changes on Mars over time.
  • How to use VEXcode GO with the Code Base to solve a challenge.

Objective(s)

Objective

  1. Students will develop a VEXcode GO project that orders behaviors in a sequence to complete a challenge.
  2. Students will communicate behaviors, through words and gestures, that the Code Base will need to complete in order to accomplish a task.

Activity

  1. In the Engage section, students will follow along with the teacher as they build a project to collect and “bury” the first sample together. In Play Part 1, students will create and test a VEXcode GO project that has the Code Base drive to collect two samples. In Play Part 2, they will add to their project to have the Code Base collect a third sample.  Students can choose the order in which the Code Base drives to collect the samples.
  2. Students will describe how the Code Base moves forward, backward, and turns in order to drive to collect a sample as they build a project during Engage. In the Play sections, students will describe how to move the Code Base to collect multiple samples and return them to the base as they add to their projects.

Assessment

  1. Students will create a project that successfully sequences Drivetrain blocks to move the Code Base to collect two Mars soil samples in Play Part 1. In Play Part 2, students will successfully add to their projects to have the Code Base collect a third sample. In Share, students can demonstrate their projects and discuss how they ordered the blocks in the project to complete the challenge.
  2. In the Mid-Play Break, students will discuss how they ordered the blocks in their project. In the Share section, students discuss their projects using words and gestures to show how the Code Base moved.

Connections to Standards