I just finished a great chat with a teacher who uses both 123 and GO in her classroom. She had a variety of questions about both and we brainstormed together to create some solutions for her unique classroom needs. Here are some takeaways that may be useful to others!
- VEX GO pieces can be used to build on the 123 Art Ring! (Examples can be seen in this VEX Library Article). When doing this in the classroom, rather than trying to recreate one of the builds in the article, create an engineering design challenge for students with constraints, such as building an attachment that can be used to push something off the field, or gather up objects from the field and push them to a specific location. * The VEX GO printable EDP Organizer can be used for this.
- Tips for building the VEX GO Code Base over time when two classes are sharing 14 kits and the classes only meet for 30 minutes a week:
- Set a goal for students to build a certain number of steps each session, to keep the students in relatively the same place in the build.
- Have students document the step they are on (she was using 3D Build instructions) on paper, and place the paper inside the top of one of the bins of the Kit. Then when the next group picks it up, they know exactly which step to start on.
- VEX GO STEM Labs can be customized to meet classroom specific needs. Given the time constraints and kit sharing described above, this teacher wanted a STEM Lab that would work for her students. We decided on Labs 2 and 3 of Parade Float, so the students could have a creative experience that also involved some very basic coding. Though they wouldn’t have time to complete all five Labs included in Parade Float, the students would still have a meaningful learning experience using the robot they built.
