Before the Partner Dance Challenge

You and your students are about to share your learning with a classroom dance-off! In the Partner Dance Challenge, students will create robot-to-robot messaging projects for two robots to perform a coordinated dance routine. Students will follow a phased process similar to the one they used in the Capstone Challenge to help them plan and code their dance routines. Your job as the teacher is to facilitate check-ins as groups move between the phases.

Each phase has a teacher note that describes what you should be looking for as you move through the classroom as well as what to look for during these check-ins.

• Phase 1 is Brainstorming. Students will brainstorm ideas for dance moves.
• Phase 2 is Planning. Students will turn their dance moves into a plan using the task card.
• Phase 3 is Testing. Students will build and test the code for their dance routines. 
• Phase 4 is Performing. Students will complete their final performance for the class.

Students can share their projects directly with you at any time using the Share button in the VEXcode AIM Toolbar. This is a great way to assess students' progress on their routines and see how they have iterated on their projects over the course of the dance challenge. Read this article to learn more about using the Share feature in VEXcode AIM.

VEX PD+ All-Access members can book a 1-on-1 session to talk through the Partner Dance Challenge with a VEX Expert.

Come together for a whole-class discussion after students have viewed the video. For this whole-class discussion, you have two objectives. 

First, ensure students are clear on the challenge goals before beginning, and get the discussion about completing the challenge started.

• Guide students to reflect on everything they have learned throughout the course as they consider different ideas for their partner dances. 
• Students can combine multiple robot actions for each controller button press if they want to - their dance need not be limited to one action per button.
• Remind students that the two robots do not have to always be performing the exact same actions, or mirroring each other! Just like in human dance routines, the robots' moves can be coordinated in a variety of creative ways.
• Remind students that they can reference their journals from the whole course to inform their discussions and choices during the challenge.
• If you think students will need additional support with making collaborative, data based decisions during this challenge, view this video from the PD+ Video Library to help you guide students. 

Co-create awards for the partner dance challenge with the students! Take time to determine what awards will be given for performances together. Have students share their answers to the question, and list them on the board. 

After everyone has shared, create a list of awards that will be given after the challenge. Be sure there is an award suitable for each group to promote positive engagement and a supportive environment. Use the following award ideas as a starting point:

• Most Creative Dance Routine
• Best use of Sounds in a Dance
• Most Unique
• Best use of Robot-to-Robot Messaging
• Best Collaboration
• Most Graceful Robot Dance
• Funniest Robot Dance

Review challenge expectations with students to begin. Be sure that students are clear on their roles and expectations for collaboration during the challenge.

To learn more about supporting students productive struggle during open-ended challenges, read this Insights article to help you facilitate the unit challenge.

Distribute the task card (Google / .docx / .pdf) to students to guide them through challenge. As students work their way through each phase of the challenge, they will check in with you before moving to the next. The following discussion questions can be used as you circulate through the room to help students think creatively and critically through each phase.

For Brainstorming:

• What ideas for coordinated dance moves do you have so far? 
• Can you think of any real life dance moves you know? Can they help you create moves for your robots?
• How will you incorporate movement with LED's, images and sounds?
• How are you involving everyone in your brainstorming session?

To learn more about guiding students to identify multiple creative approaches to a challenge, read this Insights article.

For Planning:

• How are you making collaborative decisions about the dance moves to include?
• How are you deciding on what the sending robot will do in each move, and what the receiving robot will do?
• How are you making sure everyone's ideas are included in your plan?

For Testing:

• How are you determining which blocks to use to build your project? 
• When either robot isn't performing a dance move as expected, what is your strategy for finding and fixing the issue?
• How are you collaborating to build and test your project incrementally? What is a collaboration strategy that is working well for you? 

As students test, encourage them to iterate until they have a partner dance routine with one “move” for each controller button. Make sure students know they can observe other students' projects to seek ideas and inspiration.

During this phase, you will be facilitating the Partner Dance Challenge Showcase!  Talk about how the performances will be shared before students begin: 

• Each paired group will share their coordinated partner dance for the other groups.
• Remind the groups in the audience to make positive notes about what they like about each performance. For example, they should make note of a dance move that is particularly creative, or a new way to use LED's. They will use these notes to vote on awards for the Partner Dance Challenge.

Lean into the fun of the challenge! Encourage students to cheer one another on and celebrate each group’s creativity. The Partner Dance Challenge is all about expressing ideas, taking creative risks, and learning from each performance. Make sure your classroom environment is positive and reinforces that the goal is creativity and collaboration—not competition.

Once the challenge is complete, guide students to share their learning in a whole class discussion. Use their journal questions as a discussion starter. Ask follow up questions to guide students to converge their thinking around shared understandings, and to think critically and creatively about how they can grow from this experience.

• How will you use what you learned in this unit moving forward? Do you have any new ideas for coding with robot-to-robot messaging?
• What do you know now about robot-to-robot communication that you didn't know previously? What evidence do you have to support that?
• How did your collaboration strategy affect your performance in the challenge? Is there anything you would do to improve your collaboration moving forward?

When the whole class discussion is complete, have students vote on which groups will receive each award they determined at the beginning of the challenge. Make sure each group has an award. Hold an awards ceremony to present the awards and celebrate students' achievements in this unit!

Once students have completed their reflections in their journals, come together for a whole-class discussion. Invite students to share what they wrote in their journals, and guide students toward shared conclusions about each of the unit understandings or learning targets. Ask questions like: 

• Do your observations and practice match that explanation? Why or why not? 
• Is one explanation clearer or stronger than another? Why? 
• What are some common ideas that we hear about this concept? Can we agree on one shared idea based on our combined evidence and discussions throughout the unit? Why or why not?

Once you have guided students to converge their thinking around unit understandings, you may want to create or add to the evidence of students' learning around the classroom, for students to refer to moving forward. 

Next, students should relate their learning to the real-world connections they brainstormed at the beginning of the unit. Guide the discussion with questions like: 

• What connections can you make between our understandings today and the real-world examples or experiences we talked about earlier? How does that example demonstrate your learning in a real-world context? (Student answers will vary depending on their relevant experience.)