Your VEX 123 classroom is a multifaceted learning environment, enabling students and teachers to have hands-on, minds-on learning experiences through multiple avenues. The flexibility of VEX 123 makes integrating coding exploration into other areas of the classroom easy, as students can use the 123 Robot and Coder to practice math, tell stories, talk about emotion vocabulary, or many other curricular paths.
VEX 123 STEM Labs offer teachers complete Units designed for whole-class instruction, while VEX 123 Activities extend that learning by giving students the opportunity to continue practicing those coding and curricular concepts through play. 123 Activities are designed to be used both in conjunction with STEM Labs, and as stand-alone activities themselves.
Anatomy of a 123 Activity
123 Activities are Ideal for Learning Centers
Your VEX 123 Kit can easily serve as its own Learning Center in your classroom, with the 123 Activities rotating as the hands-on activity for that space. Students can choose activities on their own, to explore and experiment according to their interests and questions. Or, the teacher can choose specific activities to highlight a particular concept or practice for students, to build upon what they are learning in other areas of the curriculum. A 123 Learning Center gives students the opportunity to use the 123 Robot to practice skills from other domains, or to practice coding through the lens of a subject area. These cross-curricular, integrated activities are designed for independent student use, but are flexible enough to be used by partners or small groups.
123 Activities Give Focus to Learning through Play
Students enjoy playing with the 123 Robot, but purely open-ended free play may be overwhelming and unproductive. The 123 Activities allow students to play with the 123 Robot, while providing parameters for that play. Each Activity has a clear goal, so students can have a focus for their actions - so they are playing to learn, and learning through play.
123 Activities Extend the Concepts in STEM Labs
Many 123 Activities have roots in the content and concepts of the STEM Labs, and put a new spin on them. Extend the idea of coding an emotion, to coding a monster to have a feeling associated with it; or continue to explore the concept of sequencing by coding the 123 Robot to follow a drawn path. When used in this way, 123 Activities can be extension activities within the context of a STEM Lab, or as a focus for a day or a week in a Learning Center.
This also enables teachers to differentiate instruction for students across a range of student needs. 123 Activities lend themselves to reteaching strategies for students who need more practice, or may have missed class and need to get caught up. The “Adapting this Unit to Your Classroom” section of the Pacing Guide in each 123 STEM Lab Unit offers specific recommendations for Activities that align with the goals and activity of that particular Unit.
Additional Activities that align to each 123 STEM Lab Unit can also be found in the Cumulative Pacing Guide.
Conveniently Located in the Teacher Portal
All of the VEX 123 Activities can be found in the Teacher Portal hub. Each Activity is a one page Google Doc, that can be downloaded and printed, or accessed on any classroom device. Activities are continually updated and added to, so check back for new 123 Activities throughout the school year.