I loved kicking off my 2026 Educators Conference experience with teaching this workshop! The goal was to provide IQ teachers with a simple, step-by-step process for adapting VEX IQ Activities into fun classroom competitions that could be used to teach specific STEM concepts.
We started off by playing a lively, gamified version of the Defend the Castle IQ Activity, which I created as an example. The adaptation and rules for this adapted version, as well as a more in-depth look at the process used to make the game, are in the slides from the workshop:
Structured Debugging Strategies with VEX IQ.pdf (3.0 MB)
Once we finished playing, I shared the process for adapting an IQ Activity into a classroom competition as in the slide below:
This is an easy process you could use with Activities from any platform. The key to creating a meaningful competition, where students are engaged and learning, is to start with the outcomes you want and build from there. Once you have you learning outcomes nailed down, you can start to think of all the fun ways to use IQ to teach that concept in the form of a game.
And, when you are looking for activities to adapt, don’t forget to check out the VEX GO Activities - there are several on that platform that could be made into stellar IQ classroom competitions using the process above.
This workshop was so much fun to teach! If you use this process to create your own classroom resources, please share them here in the community so everyone can benefit! I would love to see what you make from them.
