Session 1

Before You Begin Your Season

This STEM Lab is designed to help you and your team launch your season with a strong foundation. It introduces processes and practices you can continue to model as your team progresses through future competitions.

The sessions in this STEM Lab are sequential, guiding you from your first team meeting all the way to your first competition. You’re encouraged to move through the sessions at your own pace, spending as much time as needed in each one. The content is meant to offer both structure and a starting point for your team’s journey.

Before diving into your first team meeting, there are a few key things to consider as the coach. Taking time to prepare in advance will help set you and your team up for a successful, organized, and engaging season.

Register Your Team

If you have not done so already, now is the time to register your VEX V5 Robotics Competition team for the season with VEX Robotics Events at events.vex.com.

• For help registering a new team, see this article. 
• For help with renewing your team, see this article.

Once you are registered, follow the steps in this article to find your Virtual Skills Key to share with your team.

Complete Required Background Checks

A background check is required for every adult who serves in any active role in connection with a VEX Competition event or team. All coaches must have a completed background check before their teams can register for an event.

See this article for information on completing the required background check.

Get Your Kits and Field Materials Ready 

If you haven’t already, make sure you have the V5 Competition Starter Kit so students can build the Hero Bot, along with the Field and Game Elements for this season’s game. Follow the links on this page to order V5 Competition Products and Game Kits for this season.

Register for Your First Event

To help your team organize and work toward a competition, it is important that they know when their first competition will be. Visit VEX Robotics Events at events.vex.com to find and register for competitions.

• Use this article to help you know what you will need to register for an event. 
• See this article for steps to register for an event.

Not sure how to choose an event that is right for you? Consider the following to help you get started: 

• Where is the event and how much will it cost? Think about how students will get to and from the event, and how much the event will cost (both registration and transportation). Choose an event that fits your budget.
• What type of event is it? Choose the type of competition that is right for you. 
• Rule of Thumb - Compete early, and compete often! There will always be more that students can do to “get ready” for a competition. Competing early in the season is a powerful motivator and can be an invaluable learning experience. 

Set Expectations for the Students and Adults Involved in Your Team

Establishing clear communication between coaches, students, and parents is essential to ensuring everyone is aligned with your team’s goals and expectations. Use this Letter Home (Google doc / .pdf / .docx) to help communicate expectations for the team with parents and family members. The text in purple serves as a sample and is meant to be customized with your specific team details.

While you and your team will set goals for the season together, there are a few expectations that can help guide this process.

• The VEX V5 Robotics Competition puts student safety first. Students must feel safe in order to learn. Every participant in the VEX V5 Robotics Competition, whether student, coach, parent, or volunteer, is responsible for maintaining an inclusive and safe environment for all involved.
  • This article outlines the Global Robotics and Science Foundation Youth Protection Policy. It is essential to read and understand this information before beginning your season.
• Student-centered learning is at the heart of all VEX Robotics Competitions. Students do the work, and explain their work. The role of adults—whether coaches, mentors, or parents—is to guide, not do. The Student-Centered Policy includes three Checks to give students tools they can use to make sure their team stays student-centered.
  • This article explains the Global Robotics and Science Foundation Student-Centered Policy. It is essential to read and understand this information before beginning your season.
• Season goals are about more than just winning. Encourage your team to think about how they want to grow over the course of the season, so they view success as more than just points scored or matches won. Building a team culture that is inclusive and values learning over winning will help your team be successful no matter how a competition match ends up.
  • The Global Robotics and Science Foundation provides this Code of Conduct to ensure everyone understands the expected standards of behavior for all. It is essential to read and understand this information before beginning your season.
• The VEX V5 Robotics Competition is collaborative, emphasizing cooperation over competition. Teams are encouraged to support one another, share their learning, and foster a spirit of cooperation. During competitions, your team will work as part of an alliance, making communication and teamwork essential to success.

Learn about Facilitating this STEM Lab

• Read the Implementing a Competition 101 STEM Lab article to learn more about what you can do to before, during, and after sessions to ensure your team gets the most from the unit.
• To learn more about how to differentiate, or adapt, STEM Lab content to best meet a variety of student needs, read the Making Competition 101 STEM Labs Work for All Students article.

If this is the first time team members are meeting, consider starting your session with a fun icebreaker! A great option is to ask students some silly "Would You Rather..." questions to help them get to know each other. Don’t be afraid to sprinkle in these kinds of activities throughout your early sessions—they're a great way to build team connection and trust.

The engineering notebook must be completed by the students. You can help students develop their notebooking skills, but coaches or mentors cannot contribute to the notebook itself.

Students should submit three short summaries with their engineering notebook, directing judges to the sections your team wants judges to focus on during review. See this article for details about these summaries.

Introduce students to the rubric judges use to evaluate engineering notebooks at a competition. There are two versions available. You can choose to share either or both with your students, depending on their needs:

• The Engineering Notebook Rubric is the official rubric used by judges at a competition.
• The Student-Friendly Engineering Notebook Rubric covers the same criteria in plainer language.
• Throughout this STEM Lab, there will be suggested points for students to discuss specific sections of the rubric. In this Session, students are advised to discuss the Organization section of the rubric (or the ‘Is our Notebook Easy to Use?’ section if using the Student-Friendly version) after they make their team rules in the Activity below.
  • You may want to have a group discussion to help students establish what the organizational part of their notebook would look like at the exemplary, proficient, developing, and beginning levels.

Read this article for an introduction to how Engineering Notebooks are evaluated in a competition.

If your team is new to notebooking, they may find it overwhelming at first. Remind them they have to start somewhere, and that their notebook will grow and change with them throughout the season. You may also want to consider sharing this video to help introduce the purpose and value of the engineering notebook.

The goal of this activity is to get students excited about this year's game! Lean into the fun and the excitement that comes with trying out a game for the first time. This is meant to be a fun exploration, and to help your team members get to know each other in a low-stakes, engaging way. Use this article to help you get started with driving skills. 

Depending on the number of students on your team, you may want to run multiple Virtual Driving Skills Practice stations, to allow multiple students at a time to have a turn to drive.

Make sure that everyone gets at least one chance to try Virtual Driving Skills Practice, before moving on to the next part of the session. Because only one student can use the controller at a time, encourage others to be watching and thinking about how they will try to score or improve on their last turn. 

Let students word the rules in the way that makes the most sense to them. Your role as a coach during this activity is to help facilitate the discussion and move it forward, while not making the team's guidelines for them. By having the team create the rules and guidelines in their own words, students gain a sense of ownership over the team, build their own team identity and culture, and help empower students to solve problems themselves when future conflicts may arise. Read this article to learn more about ways to cultivate a positive team culture.

Make sure both you and your students are aware of the Student Centered Policy and the Code of Conduct. Introducing students to these policies now will help get the season off to a good start.

• Code of Conduct
• Student-Centered Policy

The Code of Conduct describes six Commitments for all VEX V5 Robotics Competition participants:

1. Safety: Put student safety first, always.
2. Respect: Treat every person with respect.
3. Learning: Let students do the work and own their decisions.
4. Integrity: Compete within the rules and own the result.
5. Fairness: Follow the rules, and expect officials to follow them too.
6. Reporting: Report concerns and violations, and protect those who do.

Before having students watch the video, encourage them to discuss these commitments, and the Student-Centered Policy as well.. It is important they understand you are here to support them throughout the season, but they must do all the work across the robotics season. 

This important discussion will help students to make actionable rules and goals for the season. An actionable goal could look like this: Team members interact respectfully at all times. This is a good guideline because it can be broadly applicable to many scenarios. It is not specific to one student or situation. 

Your team determines what a successful season looks like for them. Chances are, they won’t win every match—and that’s okay. Success is measured by more than just winning or losing. Remind students to think about what they hope to do, learn, and accomplish together as they set their goals. 

Guide students to think about each type of goal individually. If students are new to being on a team, their goals may be simpler. If you have more experienced students on the team, their goals can directly build on their previous season. Here are some suggestions:

• Teamwork goals – Improving communication and listening skills, making data-based decisions, and celebrating each other's small successes throughout the season.
• Game-related goals - Scoring in a specific goal, improving strategy development, making it to alliance selection at a competition, or earning points in skills matches.
• Personal goals - Enhancing engineering skills through build modifications, learning to use a new sensor, becoming a more agile driver, or leveling up the team's engineering notebook.