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 a lever can be used to lift an object.
- How a lever works.
- How to collect and use data during an investigation.
- How the location of a pivot point can change the amount of force required to move or lift an object.
Students will make meaning of
- Identifying that a pivot point affects the amount of force needed to lift an object.
Students will be skilled at
- How to build and use a lever to lift objects.
- How to observe and record data.
Students will know
- How simple machines, like levers, make work easier by reducing the amount of force required to lift an object.
- How to conduct an investigation to collect data.
Objective(s)
Objective
- Students will explore how a lever can make work easier by reducing the amount of force needed to lift an object depending on the location of a pivot point.
- Students will conduct an investigation by collecting data on the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces due to the location of a pivot point on a lever.
Activity
- During Engage, students will investigate how using a ruler as a lever to lift a book requires less work than using a finger. Students will also explore how the placement of the pivot point affects the amount of force needed to lift the book.
- In Play Part 1, students test and draw the results of an investigation of three different pivot points to see if the forces on each side of the Lever can be balanced.
Assessment
- During Play Part 2, students will test and determine the best pivot point on a lever to reduce the amount of force, and thus the amount of work, needed to lift three Disks. The three Disks will be on one side, and VEX GO pieces will be on the opposite side.
- In Play Part 1, students will test and record their observations using drawings of the tests on a Blueprint Worksheet. The drawings will show the pivot points on the Lever and the resulting forces acting upon it. In Mid-Play Break, students will share those drawings from their Blueprint Worksheets with other groups highlighting the forces and the pivot points on the Lever.