Welcome to teachAIM.vex.com!
Welcome educators! You are here because you recognize the importance of integrating cutting-edge technology like robotics and artificial intelligence into your computer science (CS) curriculum. You understand that providing students with engaging, hands-on experiences in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics is crucial to helping them envision themselves as innovative, capable, and creative problem-solvers in a technology-driven world.
We know that teaching, no matter the environment, presents unique challenges. Educators today are balancing numerous responsibilities and demands on their time and energy. Our comprehensive, adaptable VEX AIM educator resources are designed to simplify the integration of AI, computer science, and robotics into your classroom—whether you're new to teaching AI or an experienced CS educator. Many people are also concerned with student privacy in this new age of AI. Rest assured, student privacy is of our utmost concern, and no personally identifiable data is ever collected.
As you explore teaching with VEX AIM, this start page will become your central hub for all related resources. Here, you'll gain immediate access to everything needed to effectively teach with VEX AIM, starting with our immersive, inquiry-based AI and robotics curriculum. Additionally, you’ll find extensive teacher resources, support materials, and inspiration to elevate your students’ experiences—and your own—with VEX AIM.
Dr. Jimmy Lin
Director of Computer Science Education, VEX Robotics
Beginning students can use intuitive controls like the One Stick Controller and Touch to Code. As their confidence builds, students can explore block-based coding, switch, and Python commands, leveraging VEX AIM's AI Vision Sensor for object recognition and autonomous navigation. VEX AIM is not just educational; it's also a lot of fun. Students can personalize the robots with emojis, sounds, and custom images. They can kick sports balls, place barrels, and solve real-world challenges, all while learning essential computer science and STEM skills. VEX AIM meets students where they are and inspires them to go even further.
Of course, the best thing about VEX AIM is that it's not just a robot. It's all the things that we include to help you be successful in your classroom. The first part of that is the VEX AIM Intro Course found at education.vex.com. Here, you will find everything that you've come to expect from VEX to implement VEX AIM in your classroom. You have student-facing material that includes direct instruction videos, formative assessments, and journal prompts that help students move beyond the conceptual understanding of computer science to a much deeper level.
In addition to that, we offer teacher support materials embedded within the Intro Course itself, including Teacher Notes to help guide and facilitate your instruction. We also provide a Teacher's Portal, which includes a cumulative pacing guide and standards alignment, all designed to help you successfully use VEX AIM within your classroom.
In addition to our VEX AIM Intro Course, we also offer professional development located at pd.vx.com. Here, at our entry course, you can get everything you need to be successful, not only to learn about the pedagogy but also about the VEX AIM robot itself. This online self-paced course will allow you to learn everything you need to be successful with using VEX AIM in your classroom. The best part about our certification course is that after you become certified, you have the opportunity to participate in our Professional Learning Community.
In the Professional Learning Community, you can get questions answered and collaborate with peers from all over the world to enhance your knowledge about computer science and VEX AIM. Have an interesting lesson you want to try? Get feedback from us and teachers worldwide. Have a new topic you want to explore or a question about coding? Anything you want answered can be explored within our Professional Learning Community.
Everything we provide with our VEX AIM Intro Course and Professional Development is grounded and guided by research. You can explore all of this research at research.vex.com. We want to ensure that we are following the best practices in STEM and computer science education, as well as in teacher professional development, as we guide you to use VEX AIM within your classroom or educational setting. You can be confident that the resources we provide are guided by the best possible practices in computer science and STEM education.
In addition to our VEX AIM Intro Course and our Professional Development, we also have resources like the VEX Library. The library contains articles that cover everything from how to get started with the VEX AIM robot, how to charge your VEX AIM robot, to facilitating a classroom discussion using our VEX AIM Intro Course.
In addition to our VEX Library, we're very excited about the VEX AIM API. This is a comprehensive resource located at api.vex.com, and it's also built within VEXcode itself. It allows you to explore the different commands you'll be using to make your VEX AIM robot solve real-world challenges or to explore various computer science concepts.
With VEX AIM, our goal is to help bring computer concepts to life. That's why we've designed this robot to be not only educational but also fun, along with all these resources to help you bring VEX AIM to your classroom.
This Teach Page allows you to see everything we're providing so that you can get started in your classroom.
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Curricular Support
VEX offers free, online, integrated computer science (CS) curricula for teaching with VEX AIM. Our Activities and courses provide the support teachers need to easily immerse their students in collaborative, project-based CS learning powered by the excitement of educational robotics.
VEX AIM Courses deliver comprehensive computer science curricula. Each unit offers a wealth of resources for teachers, serving as an online teacher’s manual that includes:
- Side-by-side Teacher Notes
- Connections to Standards
- Printables to help students build, plan, iterate, and collaborate
Want to learn more about VEX AIM Activities and courses? VEX Professional Development Plus is a comprehensive suite of professional development offerings designed to support all teachers. See below for details.
VEX AIM Activities are designed for independent student use. They offer cross-curricular connections and are great for short activities, learning centers, or extending or reteaching concepts from VEX AIM courses.
Our pacing guides make planning straightforward and easy. The AIM Cumulative Pacing Guide contains all of our courses and activities in one place that you can use to plan instructional sequences that meet your goals.
Comprehensive Teacher Support
Teacher as Facilitator
While AIM courses are student-facing content, a side-by-side Facilitation Guide serves as the teacher-facing companion for each page in a unit. This functions like a teacher’s manual, providing the resources, materials, and information needed to plan, teach, and assess with VEX AIM. You can print the entire page to have a paper copy on hand while planning and teaching.
Simply use the toggle at the top of the page to select Teacher to view in line facilitation information as you teach. Begin by reviewing the "Before You Begin" section for an overview of the unit. Then each section includes lesson specific guidance for how you can be a facilitator throughout the learning process. Review each lesson’s specific instructions before teaching to keep your instruction focused.
Building Understanding
Direct instruction within each lesson is provided in student-facing videos taught by VEX Experts. This means that you do not need to be an expert coder to complete these courses in your classroom. Each video is accompanied by a summary to reference while watching the video or later while completing the guided practice.
Guided practice is built into each lesson, including resources like Driving task cards and a Coding task cards, for students to complete their hands-on tasks. These task cards are designed to help students monitor and communicate their progress and learning with you, and with each other.
Student Centered Assessment
The unit challenge is designed as a student-centered assessment, serving as a culminating activity that allows students to demonstrate their understanding of the unit's concepts and skills. It is intentionally open-ended, providing multiple pathways and creative approaches for students to solve the challenge.
Teacher Portal
The teacher portal is designed to have everything you need as a teacher. This includes the cumulative pacing guide and standards.
Personalized Coding Methods for Every Student
VEX AIM is designed to bring coding to every student. Beginners can dive right in using intuitive controls like the One Stick Controller and Button Coding. As their confidence builds, students can explore block-based and Python coding, leveraging AIM’s AI Vision Sensor for advanced challenges in object recognition and autonomous navigation.
Driving with the One Stick Controller
Drive mode is a default program built into the VEX AIM Coding Robot. Drive mode allows you to use the controller to move the robot, use the Kicker, view emojis on the robot's screen, and hear some of the robot's built-in sounds without coding. Driving the robot enables students to see and feel how the robot needs to move to accomplish a task.
For more information, read this article about the Drive Mode on the VEX AIM Coding Robot.
Button Coding
The VEX AIM Coding Robot's built-in Button Coding allows you to program movement and kicking actions using either the robot's touchscreen buttons or the One Stick Controller. This offers an introduction to basic sequencing, enabling students to begin coding the robot without using a device.
For more information, read this article about Button Coding on the VEX AIM Coding Robot.
Blocks
When students are ready, they can move to VEXcode AIM to level up their coding skills, and begin coding the robot in Blocks. Students can build their skills to code the robot to complete more complex tasks. Learn more about all of the Blocks in VEXcode AIM with the VEXcode API Reference.
Switch
VEXcode AIM includes Switch block functionality, enabling students to transition between blocks and text-based coding in the way that works best for them. Students can start by converting a block into a Switch block to view the underlying Python commands for that particular block. Switch blocks allow students to take ownership of their own blocks to text transition.
Python
VEXcode AIM also allows you to code the robot in Python. Learn more about Python in VEXcode AIM with the VEXcode API Reference.
Hands-On Learning Artificial Intelligence
VEX AIM is designed specifically to empower educators in introducing artificial intelligence (AI) concepts to students through hands-on, interactive learning experiences. With easy-to-use tools and engaging curricula, VEX AIM makes complex AI ideas accessible and exciting for learners of all skill levels. Whether you're new to AI or have extensive computer science experience, VEX AIM provides the resources and support needed to successfully guide your students through their AI journey.The robot is equipped with a built-in AI Vision Sensor, providing hands-on opportunities for exploring AI concepts through both block and Python coding. The VEX AIM Coding Robot is easy to get started with and provides a high ceiling, allowing it to meet students where they are in their understanding of AI and to continue to challenge them as they grow.
Student Privacy is Our Highest Priority
We bring together computer science, AI, and robotics to provide an authentic context for learning AI that is safe, fun and motivating. We emphasize hands-on robotics and AI Vision Sensors rather than Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT.
Our approach ensures your students' data is always secure.
- Using Robots with AI Vision Sensors to teach about AI offers hands-on and visually engaging ways to explore AI concepts without the potential privacy risks present with LLMs.
- No personally identifiable (PII) data is ever collected.
- Images or video streams from VEX sensors or robots never leaves a student device.
- Students are provided with pre-trained AI models, eliminating the need for students to collect and upload images to powerful and expensive cloud servers for processing.
Student Experiences Led by Pedagogy
Research-Driven Pedagogy
Teach with AIM with confidence. VEX AIM courses and activities are research-based STEM programs developed by teachers for teachers and backed by proven results. The purpose of VEX Research is to provide teachers and district administrators with information about the research-based instructional strategies and approaches used in VEX products and solutions.
Read more at research.vex.com
Student-directed learning with self-assessment
Throughout VEX AIM courses, student self-assessment is included in reflection prompts, debrief conversations, and even in the beginning stages of the unit as you co-create learning targets with your students. Student self-assessment speaks to what we value most: students and their voices. By creating a space for students to share their progress and learning, we emphasize the process of iteration and learning from failure over the final product or score in the competition. Visit these resources for additional information and guidance on this research-based practice:
Make learning visible with Journals and Task Cards
Journals encourage students to record data, strategies, and iterations so they can effectively reflect on their learning at the end of a lesson or a unit. The task card is a metacognitive tool designed to help students monitor and communicate their progress and learning with you, and with each other. This allows them to reference specific data when making decisions and engaging in conversations with their classmates and teachers. Read more about how task cards can:
- promote active learning
- boost student motivation
- promote student interaction
- contextualize the learning experience
VEX Professional Development Plus (PD+)
VEX Robotics offers comprehensive professional development resources available on pd.vex.com. VEX’s Professional Development Plus (PD+) platform is your destination for a wealth of resources designed to empower educators in the world of STEM. The VEX PD+ platform offers two tiers: a free tier and an All-Access paid tier.
Read more about creating your free PD+ account.
VEX PD+ free tier
The VEX PD+ free tier includes access to:
- Intro Courses: These self-paced online courses provide training on each VEX platform. Each course contains formative assessment and tracks your progress, making it easy for you to check your understanding and complete the course at your own pace. Once you become certified, you gain access to the VEX Professional Learning Community (PLC).
- Professional Learning Community (PLC): Join a network of global educators and VEX Experts, where you can learn, share, and benefit from a wealth of shared experiences. This is your virtual Teacher’s Lounge, where you can have meaningful dialogue, share expertise, ask questions, and work collaboratively to improve your STEM teaching and learning.
VEX PD+ paid tier (All-Access)
The VEX PD+ paid tier (All-Access) includes access to:
- 1-1 Sessions: Schedule a 1-1 session with a VEX expert, get guidance and support tailored to your needs.
- VEX Masterclasses: Video-based, expert-led courses that range from introductory ‘Getting Started’ courses to more advanced and pedagogy-focused courses.
- VEX Video Library: Access to hundreds of videos across a variety of topics and VEX platforms, available anytime and from anywhere.
- VEX Robotics Educators Conference: An annual conference that brings the VEX PD+ Community together for in-person, hands-on learning, inspiring keynotes, and learning sessions with VEX education experts.
Every user will also have access to their own dashboard, which includes a tour of all the VEX PD+ features, allowing them to get started easily. We are continuously updating PD+ with new materials, ensuring our platform remains a rich, dynamic resource for our educators.
We are here to support you on your professional journey. If you have any questions or feedback, you can use the feedback tool in VEX PD+. We're excited for you to explore, learn, and connect.
VEX Library
The VEX Library provides documentation, resources, and information about all things VEX, organized in one place. This self-serve support exists to help users quickly find detailed information on building, electronics, coding, and troubleshooting.
The VEX Library includes information on:
Additional Educator Resources:
Go to library.vex.com for more
For more support, contact VEX support by phone, email, or chat.