You’ve learned how to use the One Stick Controller to move the VEX AIM Coding Robot, kick balls, and place barrels—now it’s time to put it all together! In this unit challenge, you’ll use your controller skills to complete a series of tasks with accuracy and strategic planning. Work with your group to plan your approach, practice your movements, and refine your technique to complete the challenge as efficiently as possible!
In this timed challenge, you will complete the following tasks in the shortest time possible:
- Kick 2 sports balls into the goal created by AprilTag ID 0 and 1.
- Place 3 orange barrels next to AprilTag ID 2.
- Place 3 blue barrels next to AprilTag ID 3.
Watch the video below to see an example of a robot completing the challenge.
Now that you have watched the video, capture your thoughts in your journal.
- What will you need to think about to complete the challenge tasks as quickly as you can?
- What have you learned throughout the course so far that will help you to make the best possible strategy for completing this challenge?
- What questions do you have about completing this challenge?
- Why do you think your strategy will be effective? Support your ideas with reasoning based on what you have learned throughout the unit.
Now that you have watched the video, capture your thoughts in your journal.
- What will you need to think about to complete the challenge tasks as quickly as you can?
- What have you learned throughout the course so far that will help you to make the best possible strategy for completing this challenge?
- What questions do you have about completing this challenge?
- Why do you think your strategy will be effective? Support your ideas with reasoning based on what you have learned throughout the unit.
Ensure that all students understand the goals of the challenge before beginning and that they are formulating evidence-based strategies for completing it. After students view the video, have a group discussion about the challenge using the provided student prompts to get started.
Remind students that they can refer to their journaling from previous lessons, in addition to what they saw in the video, to help them formulate their initial thoughts and answer the questions.
Complete the Challenge
Now that you have seen one way to drive the robot to complete the challenge, it is time to try it!
Step 1: Set up the field as shown below.
Step 2: Start the timed challenge.
Your task is to drive the robot to perform all of the following actions in the shortest amount of time:
- Kick 2 sports balls through the goal.
- Move all orange barrels to AprilTag ID 2.
- Move all blue barrels to AprilTag ID 3.
Use this task card (Google / .docx / .pdf) to guide you as you complete the challenge. Keep trying to improve your time!
Now that you have seen one way to drive the robot to complete the challenge, it is time to try it!
Step 1: Set up the field as shown below.
Step 2: Start the timed challenge.
Your task is to drive the robot to perform all of the following actions in the shortest amount of time:
- Kick 2 sports balls through the goal.
- Move all orange barrels to AprilTag ID 2.
- Move all blue barrels to AprilTag ID 3.
Use this task card (Google / .docx / .pdf) to guide you as you complete the challenge. Keep trying to improve your time!
Foreground the challenge expectations at the start.
- Review turn-taking and collaboration strategies.
- Brainstorm with students ways in which they can be supportive of each other during the challenge.
Distribute the task card (Google / .docx / .pdf) to students to guide them through the completion of the unit challenge. Ensure each group has a way to time their runs.
As you circulate through the room, check in with each group to understand how they are completing the challenge. Ask questions like:
- What is your strategy to complete the challenge?
- What is one thing you can change about your strategy to make it more effective? How will you know it is working?
- What challenges are you facing as you work to complete the challenge? How are you assessing the best ways to move forward when you are facing a challenge?
- How is your group collaborating to complete this challenge?
Give students ample time to work iteratively. They should try the challenge, record their time in their journal, and decide on a strategy for improving their time. There is no such thing as being “done” in a unit challenge! They should then try the challenge again to see the effect of their changes.
In a unit challenge, you can determine when it is time to end the challenge and transition students into sharing their learning. Once you feel that all students have had time to complete the challenge effectively and iteratively, wrap up the challenge phase and move on to reflection.
Share Your Strategy
Once everyone has completed the challenge, you will share your strategy with the class. To prepare for this sharing session, answer the following questions in your journal:
- What strategy did your group use to complete the challenge? Why was it successful?
- How did your group choose that strategy together?
- How did you apply what you learned in the unit to complete the challenge? Be specific in your answers.
- Do you think your strategy was the best way to complete the challenge? Why or why not?
Once everyone has completed the challenge, you will share your strategy with the class. To prepare for this sharing session, answer the following questions in your journal:
- What strategy did your group use to complete the challenge? Why was it successful?
- How did your group choose that strategy together?
- How did you apply what you learned in the unit to complete the challenge? Be specific in your answers.
- Do you think your strategy was the best way to complete the challenge? Why or why not?
Once everyone has completed the challenge, come together for a whole class strategy sharing session and discussion. This is an opportunity to highlight the different ways to solve a problem, and for students to engage in scientific discourse to make a claim and defend their claim with evidence. The goal of this section is to give students an opportunity to share their success and engage in discourse about the different strategies and approaches.
The discussion should center around the final bullet – Do you think your strategy was the best way to complete the challenge? Why or why not? By the end of the discussion, the class should have consensus on what the best approach means to them.
- Begin with one group sharing their strategy or demonstrating their project for the class, and presenting their answers to the questions.
- Each group should respond to what was shared, using their project strategy and journal documentation as evidence to support their claim.
- Encourage students to think more deeply about what “best” means in this challenge. What criteria could be used here? Why?
Remind students about classroom expectations for respectful discourse and encourage them to agree or disagree with evidence and not judgment.
Reflect and Share
At the start of this unit, you co-created learning targets with your teacher. Now that you’ve completed the challenge, take some time to reflect on your progress toward those learning targets.
For each of your learning targets, complete the following sentences in your journal:
- Before I began this unit, I thought _________________.
- After we completed the unit challenge, I realized _________________.
- My evidence for this is ______________________.
Check in with your teacher when you have completed the sentences for each learning target. This reflection will help you to share your learning.
At the start of this unit, you co-created learning targets with your teacher. Now that you’ve completed the challenge, take some time to reflect on your progress toward those learning targets.
For each of your learning targets, complete the following sentences in your journal:
- Before I began this unit, I thought _________________.
- After we completed the unit challenge, I realized _________________.
- My evidence for this is ______________________.
Check in with your teacher when you have completed the sentences for each learning target. This reflection will help you to share your learning.
The purpose of Reflect and Share is to guide students to:
- Evaluate their progress toward each learning target, using evidence from their journal.
- Guide the class as a whole to converge their thinking around the unit understandings.
- Relate their learning to real-world applications.
For information about implementing effective formative assessment, see this video in the VEX PD+ Video Library.
First, students will complete the sentences to reflect on their progress toward each of their learning targets.
Next, engage students in a whole class discussion by inviting students to share the evaluations they recorded in their journal. Guide students toward shared conclusions about each of the unit understandings, using prompts such as:
- I'm hearing a few ideas / strategies about ________________. How can we decide which of these explanations are the best?
- How could you convince someone your idea is correct using evidence?
- How could you convince someone your strategy is better using evidence?
- Can anyone else propose an explanation that combines the best parts of the ideas that have been shared, and support them with evidence?
- How can you be sure your explanation/idea is the most accurate?
- Can you think of any real-world connections to support your idea?
Once you have guided students' thinking to converge around the unit understandings, you may want to create a class artifact displaying the class's shared understandings for students to refer to throughout the unit. Ideas for this documentation include:
- Anchor charts
- Concept maps
- Digital learning boards
Finally, students should relate their learning to the real world examples they brainstormed at the beginning of the unit. Guide the discussion with questions such as:
- How might what you learned be useful to someone using robots for marine research/food delivery/farm maintenance? (Tailor the question based on the real world connections made in the introduction of the unit.)
To learn more about facilitating this section of the unit, see this VEX Library Article.
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