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 correctly describe the flow of a project that uses sensors to complete a task.
- How to describe the difference between a waiting and non-waiting block in terms of project flow.
Students will make meaning of
- How to use Control blocks with sensor data to control the flow of a project.
- How an Eye Sensor can report a Boolean condition that can be used with a [Wait until] block to control the flow of a project.
Students will be skilled at
- How to create a project for a Robot Arm to pick up a disk when the Eye Sensor detects it.
- Using the [Wait until] block with a sensor in a project.
- Using a [Wait until] block with a non-waiting block, like [Energize Electromagnet], in order to check a sensor condition.
Students will know
- That non-waiting blocks have the stack continue even if the block’s behavior is not yet complete.
- That a waiting block pauses the stack until that block’s behavior is complete.
- That the [Wait until] block is a Control block that accepts Boolean values.
- That the [Wait until] block will repeatedly check a Boolean condition and will not move to the next block until the condition reports true.
- That the <Eye detects object?> block reports a TRUE or FALSE value in a [Wait until] block.
Objective(s)
Objective
- Students will identify and describe an Eye Sensor and how it works within the Robot Arm (2-Axis) to complete a task.
- Students will identify and describe what a condition is, and how conditions are used to control the flow of a project.
Activity
- In the Engage section, students will be introduced to an Eye Sensor and compare and contrast it to a human eye. In the Play section, they will use the Eye Sensor’s reported values within a project to detect an object and pick up a disk.
- In the Play sections, students will be introduced to the <Eye sensor detects object?> block as a condition, and will use it in a project with the Robot Arm. During the Mid-Play Break, students will describe how the condition was checked in their project, and what happened in the flow of the project as a result.
Assessment
- During the Share section, students will describe how the Eye Sensor worked in the context of their project to help the Robot Arm to move a disk when an object was detected.
- During the Share section, students will describe what condition they used in their projects, and how the Eye Sensor data was used to control the flow of the project in order to successfully move a disk using the Robot Arm (2-Axis).