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 use the Engineering Design Process to complete a design challenge.
How to use the Pantograph to create scaled copies for creating different designs.

Students will make meaning of

How to use tools to create designs that communicate our ideas.
How the Pantograph can be useful in real-life contexts.

Students will be skilled at

Using the Pantograph as a design tool.
Sharing ideas and collaboratively making decisions.

Students will know

How tools can help solve difficult challenges.
That collaboration is important in the Engineering Design Process.

Objective(s)

Objective

Identify how a tool, like the Pantograph, can be used help solve a challenges.
Identify that collaboration is important in the Engineering Design Process.

Activity

Students will use the Pantograph in the Play sections to create smaller and larger copies of drawings, as part of a design challenge.
Students will use the Engineering Design Process Organizer to make notes in the Engage and Play sections. Students will collaborate to decide on a school shape, share ideas, and make decisions for their group’s final design.

Assessment

The individual student designs and group design will show their use of the Pantograph as a design tool. They will evaluate the tool in the Play and Share sections.
Students will complete the Engineering Design Process Organizer and review how it helped their process in the Share section. In the Play section, students will be prompted to share how they made decisions together. In the Share section students will discuss how their collaboration helped them solve the challenge.

Connections to Standards

Showcase Standards

Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP.5: Use appropriate tools strategically.

How Standard is Achieved: Students will utilize the Pantograph as a design tool in order to create designs for an astronaut school. During the Play section, students will use the Pantograph to create scaled drawings as part of a design challenge. During the Share section they will discuss how they used the Pantograph as a tool to help them create their models and designs.

Showcase Standards

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

ISTE (7) Global Collaborator - 7c: Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

How Standard is Achieved: Students will follow their roles to carry out different responsibilities during the Lab activities. Students will collaborate closely with one another to share ideas, and decide on a final design in the Play sections.

Additional Standards

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

NGSS 3-5-ETS-1: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

How Standard is Achieved: Students will be introduced to a design challenge: designing a school for astronauts. They will outline the design challenge and list constraints on an Engineering Design Process Organizer. Students will evaluate their design ideas by considering how well they meet the needs of the challenge.

Additional Standards

Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS)

NGSS 3-5-ETS1-2: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

How Standard is Achieved: Students will use the Pantograph to create multiple smaller copies of a basic design. Each student will use a copy to develop their own design ideas. Students will communicate their design ideas and collaborate on which design elements best suite the needs of the challenge in order to create their final school designs.

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