There has been a great conversation in the V5 category that I wanted to make sure VRC Coaches and Mentors also got a chance to take part in the conversation!
The original question was asking about how to differentiate for special needs students in a competition-focused classroom. Including how to support them in the classroom and also through competitions and expectation-setting.
What experience do you have with special needs students on your VRC teams? What differentiation and supports do you have in place to help these students succeed?
I will share my original response to the question here to get the conversation started.
From my experience with students in special education, they have a wide swath of expertise and interests, and I think a competition team really lends itself well to that situation. For students who are more mechanically minded, they can really work as the engineers of the team and work on the designs. For those who like to work with their hands, they can follow the design of the engineers and work on the construction elements of the robots, and so on and so forth. Letting them focus on the elements that make them most excited will help with overall engagement and give them the opportunity to learn from their peers.
As far as expectations, I think it’s all about being open and meeting the students where they are at. There are so many ability levels for students and the classroom competitions mentioned above do help to make that possible. Many of the intermediate challenges and practice activities in those STEM Labs are groups working to beat their own time or their own high score. This helps remove some of the comparative elements between groups and helps each individual group really define what success means to them.
If you are going to a full VRC Competition with the students, I think starting with the basics is the best way to go. Have them build the HeroBot (this year it is Striker) which can accomplish the main tasks of the game, then do basic practice with the Controller to drive and control the robot. This Over Under STEM Lab is a great way for students to learn the game and do more of those competitions against themselves to improve their scores in a Skills Match. Then let them compete with the HeroBot. There are many teams who start their season this way each year and then change just one mechanism at a time to make their robot better.
I think overall the main framing for a lot of these competition elements is that the point of the lessons and the competition is not to win, but to be better than where you started. And that makes a huge difference for the student experience as well if you can build up that kind of classroom/team culture.
