Hi everyone!
I’m a brand new VEX V5 Robotics teacher from Summit High School in Summit, NJ. Students return for their first day on Tuesday, September 8th, and I’m working on getting ready for that first day/week.
I will be following the V5 Curriculum using the 42 week course outline (which combines V5 and EXP STEM Labs). I plan on starting with the Week 1 Lab, Robo Rally.
I would love any/all advice on what other teachers do for their first day/week: do you jump right into building the Speedbot? Or do you go through the various parts of the robot with your students?
I appreciate any/all replies to this post, as I am a department to myself (as I’m sure many others are as well!).
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Hi John, welcome to the community. Starting at Week 1 with Robo Rally is the right call, so I’d stay with that plan.
On your question, build first. Don’t front-load a parts tour. The Speedbot build is the parts tour, just with the learning happening in their hands instead of on a screen. Now, you can spend a bit of time scaffolding, in case students struggle with following build instructions and spatial reasoning. For example, before the full build, hand each group one or two steps from the instructions and have them find the pieces, build just that step, and compare it to the picture. Five minutes. That shows you who reads the diagrams easily and who’s going to need a hand before you’re twenty steps in. It also gives you something to point back to when a group gets stuck: “You did this on Tuesday, what’s different here?”
Two other things I’d give your first week to.
Team roles and routines. Decide now how students will work in groups (builder, programmer, recorder, whatever fits your class) and rotate them early. That structure is what keeps a room of new builders from turning into three kids watching one kid.
Normalizing failure out loud. The first program that doesn’t work is the most important moment of your first week. If students see you treat it as the start of the process rather than a mistake, you’ve set the culture for the whole year. The engineering notebook is where that shows up. Have them write down what didn’t work before they fix it.
You’re a department of one (i was one also), but you aren’t alone. This PLC is the hallway conversation. Post what happened after day one and people here will jump in.
Good luck on the 8th and keep us updated!
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