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 design features can help to solve an authentic problem.

Students will make meaning of

Using authentic solutions to solve real problems in our environment.

Students will be skilled at

Following the Engineering Design Process.
Designing a solution to an environmental problem.

Students will know

How to apply an authentic solution to an authentic problem.

Objective(s)

Objective

Students will create an extension arm for their Code Base robot.
Students will articulate ideas for solutions to the real-world pollution problem using the Code Base robot.

Activity

Students will develop a plan in the Engage section for an extension arm to collect trash. Students will use the Engineering Design Process to create that plan.
Students will discuss their designs in the Mid-Play Break and explain how they think the extension arm will work in practice.

Assessment

Students will build their extension arm for the Code Base in Play Part 1.
In Play Part 2, students will write and present a 30 second speech explaining how their extension arm can collect trash and how it applies to the real-world pollution problem.

Connections to Standards

Showcase Standards

Computer Teacher Science Association (CSTA)

CSTA 1A-AP-12: Develop plans that describe a program's sequence of events, goals, and expected outcomes.

How Standard is Achieved: In Play Part 1, students will write out pseudocode to describe what they want their program to accomplish. Knowing that the extension arm and Code Base are supposed to clean up trash, students will plan the sequence needed to best gather trash.

Showcase Standards

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

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

How Standard is Achieved: Students will make connections between the garbage they have seen on the side of the road and the larger pollution problems like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Engage section. In Play Part 1, students plan a solution for this pollution problem by designing and creating an extension arm to gather trash in the ocean.

Showcase Standards

Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.1: Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to.

How Standard is Achieved: In the Play sections and during the Mid-Play Break students will describe where will the extension be added to the Code Base robot, the shape of their extension, and how the robot will move with the extension attached using spatial language. Students will be encouraged to use spatial language in these descriptions such as, “the extension will be added to the front/back,” or “the extension was designed to attach these pieces using these connectors.” In Play Part 2, students will deliver a 30 second speech where they use spatial language to describe how their extensions were made, and how they work. Some examples could include, “these two pieces were attached together in order to make the extension longer,” or “the extension was added to the lower part of the front of the Code Base robot, so that it could reach trash closer to the ground.”

Additional Standards

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

NGSS 5-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

How Standard is Achieved: In the Engage section, students talk about the pollution and litter they have seen. Students use the information presented in the Engage section to develop ideas about how they can impact the environment and protect Earth’s resources. In the Share section, students will present their 30 second speech about how their extension arm can help to collect trash from the ocean.

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