STEM + PE (Gym Class)?

VEX 123
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I’m looking for some help coming up with ideas for STEM infused Gym Classes.

My initial idea was to play the “Maze Game” with the 123 on the tiles, which would transfer to a human board. Students would need to unlock the maze by coding the 123 and then have their peers go through a physical version of the maze on the floor.

I’m open to any/all ideas with any platform, but ideally 123 or GO.

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Hi @Joe_Edlhuber great question! I love the idea of integrating STEM into physical education classes. Here is another idea to build on yours, would love to hear from others.
Robot Tag
Program the VEX robots to play a game of tag. One robot can be “it” and the other robots will need to avoid being touched. If a robot is touched, the students have to do a set number of exercises before their robot can re-enter the game.

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You can also look into using the VEX 123 printables - using the buttons or the coder cards. Have the students do the activity then transfer to the 123 robots.

Having the students move in any synchronized pattern and having the robotics mimic the behavior is also an option.

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I love it.

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@Joe_Edlhuber I think the Fishbowl Activities for 123 could be fun to translate into a gym space. Here are some ideas:

  • Fishbowl - With the robot, the goal is to code it to swim around the fishbowl without falling off the Tile. For PE, you can start with students in a big fishbowl space, and they have to swim around without bumping into other fish OR falling out of the bowl. For each round of the game, the bowl gets smaller. For an extra challenge, students that bump into each other or fall out of the bowl can stand in place as fish tank decorations! (Think coral or 2 children making a treasure chest or something like that).

You could then connect this back to the robot and have students add the tank decorations to their fishbowls on the Field and code the robot fish to swim around the obstacles in the fishbowl.

  • Red Fish, Blue Fish - With the robot, the goal is to code multiple fish to swim around the fishbowl without stopping, then add ‘if’ and ‘act’ Coder cards to react when they see a fish friend in their path. In the PE space, you could give each student a color, and then they swim around a large fishbowl (as they did in the previous game), but now each time they ‘meet’ a fish of the same color, they react and start swimming together. The goal would be to see which color could gather the biggest ‘school of fish’ in the round. For an added challenge, you could attach the colors to students backs, so they have to swim a bit more to find their buddies.
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UPDATE:

STEM in the Gym happened and 123’s station was a hit! Thanks for all of the help and feedback!

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Terrific - thank you for the update

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If you are looking to read more about STEM + PE, check out the new Insights from @Audra_Selkowitz Incorporating Movement Into Robotics.
Insights can be accessed on the left hand side of your PD+ Dashboard.

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