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 Volcano Deposit competition, giving them an overview of all of the tasks for this Lab. Review strategies and ideas that students used in Labs 1 and 2 to move sensors. Have them share their ideas about how they could use their robot arm to lift the sensor to the top of the Volcano (show the Volcano tile in the Image Slideshow for reference). 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 use the robot arm to lift the sensor. Have a sensor and an Advanced Hero Robot available for students to manipulate to help them come up with some ideas of how to use the robot arm to secure and lift the sensor. Share with students the MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) background information on underwater volcano research. Scientists are using underwater sensors and temperature readings to predict these volcanoes and tsunamis. Have students brainstorm how the tasks in the Volcano Deposit! competition are similar to the underwater monitoring tasks completed by scientists. 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 Stage 3 Field available for a visual aid.	In Lab 2, we used our Hero Robots to move sensors to specific locations around the Field and aligning the pipeline in the Underwater Rescue competition. In this lab, we are again moving a sensor; this time to the Volcano tile. But the new task is now we have to use our Hero Robot arm to lift the sensor and place it on the top of the volcano. What are some ideas on how to use the Hero Robot arm to complete this new task? What do you notice about the robot arm and the build of the sensor? What would be some good ways to be able to secure the sensor onto the robot arm? Are there any engineering modifications your team would want to make to your Hero Robot to make it easier to lift the sensor with the robot arm? The task in Volcano Deposit is to deliver a temperature sensor to the top of the volcano. Why would this be an important task in real life for scientists to be able to complete remotely instead of with a human scuba diver? 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 and use the robot arm to score points in each task of this competition?

ACTS

ASKS

Show students each of the tasks for Volcano Deposit competition, giving them an overview of all of the tasks for this Lab. Review strategies and ideas that students used in Labs 1 and 2 to move sensors. Have them share their ideas about how they could use their robot arm to lift the sensor to the top of the Volcano (show the Volcano tile in the Image Slideshow for reference). 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 use the robot arm to lift the sensor.
Have a sensor and an Advanced Hero Robot available for students to manipulate to help them come up with some ideas of how to use the robot arm to secure and lift the sensor.
Share with students the MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) background information on underwater volcano research. Scientists are using underwater sensors and temperature readings to predict these volcanoes and tsunamis. Have students brainstorm how the tasks in the Volcano Deposit! competition are similar to the underwater monitoring tasks completed by scientists.
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 Stage 3 Field available for a visual aid.

In Lab 2, we used our Hero Robots to move sensors to specific locations around the Field and aligning the pipeline in the Underwater Rescue competition. In this lab, we are again moving a sensor; this time to the Volcano tile. But the new task is now we have to use our Hero Robot arm to lift the sensor and place it on the top of the volcano. What are some ideas on how to use the Hero Robot arm to complete this new task?
What do you notice about the robot arm and the build of the sensor? What would be some good ways to be able to secure the sensor onto the robot arm? Are there any engineering modifications your team would want to make to your Hero Robot to make it easier to lift the sensor with the robot arm?
The task in Volcano Deposit is to deliver a temperature sensor to the top of the volcano. Why would this be an important task in real life for scientists to be able to complete remotely instead of with a human scuba diver?
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 and use the robot arm to score points in each task of this competition?

Getting the Students Ready to Build

Before we can drive our Hero Robots to score samples at the Lab, 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, 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 to begin.

Competition Base 2.0

As students complete the Competition Base, have them check in with you. Then, distribute build instructions for the Competition Advanced Hero Robot. Students will add onto the Competition Base to build the Competition Advanced 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, 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 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

Allow extra time in the Engage section if you choose to have students build Stage 3 of the Ocean Science Exploration Field together with you. This stage builds the Volcano tile 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 1-9 of the Volcano build instructions
- Team B completes steps 10-27 of the Volcano build instructions
- Team C completes steps 28-40 of the Volcano build instructions
- Team D completes steps 41-52 of the Volcano build instructions
- Team E completes steps 53-68 of the Volcano build instructions
- Team F completes steps 69-78 of the Volcano build instructions
- Team G completes steps 79-90 of the Volcano build instructions
- Team H completes steps 91-97 of the Volcano build instructions, connect the new Volcano tile to the rest of the Field and attach all walls
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 Volcano Deposit adds in a new skill of using the robot arm, 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 Volcano Deposit! 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 (Google / .docx / .pdf) or the Data Collection Sheet (Google / .docx / .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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