Each season, the VEX IQ Robotics Competition game presents students with rich and challenging problem-solving opportunities. Because the games have multiple scoring opportunities and a wealth of possible strategies, the complexity of a VEX IQ Robotics Competition game can seem overwhelming, especially for students new to robotics competitions.
While the game manual is an excellent place to start when seeking to understand a VEX IQ Robotics Competition game, a scaffolded approach can help students to develop game skills and strategy in a progressive manner. One way to do this is to break the game down into individual scoring elements and introducing them one at a time. This can help students to develop game skills and strategy in a progressive manner that builds their confidence without overwhelming them.
This article provides suggestions for scaffolding VEX IQ Level Up by introducing each of the main scoring components. It also suggests ways to integrate this scaffolding into the Competition 101: VEX IQ Level Up.
Scaffolding VEX IQ Level Up
Level Up can be broken down into three main ways to score. Scaffold students' learning of the game by introducing each main scoring method, and providing students with opportunities to practice it before putting multiple scoring methods together into a game strategy.
Scoring in the Floor Goal
Scoring Bean Bags in a Floor Goal is the most basic scoring method in Level Up, so practicing this fundamental skill is a good place to start. Students could begin with scoring the yellow preload Bean Bag in the nearest Floor Goal. In order for a Bean Bag to be counted as scored, it must be fully within the boundaries of the goal, match the color of a goal, or be yellow.
In the image shown here, only the yellow Bean Bag would be scored, but the blue and red ones would not. The blue is a mismatched color, and the red is not fully inside the goal.
Scoring on Levels of the Pyramid Goal
Once students are comfortable with scoring in a Floor Goal, they can move on to practicing scoring on the Pyramid Goal. The Hero Bot, Flop, can score on the L1 and L2 goals. Students could practice this skill by driving their robot to pick up a Bean Bag and scoring it on the Pyramid Goal, matching the Bean Bag's color to the correct Goal.
By adding this incrementally more difficult challenge, students can build on their previous practice to advance their skills. Note that to score on L3, students will need to iterate on the Hero Bot reach it.
Scoring on the L4 Goal
L4 is the tallest goal in Level Up, and carries the highest point value. Only yellow Bean Bags can be scored on this goal. Just as with an L3 Goal, students must modify their robot in order to score on this goal. Encourage students to think about how this redesign affects the rest of their robot's performance, and to practice driving to and scoring on both Goals once the modification is complete.
Competition 101 STEM Lab Integration
The Competition 101: VEX IQ Level Up STEM Lab provides support for introducing Level Up to students. As you implement the STEM Lab, you may want to scaffold students learning as outlined in this article. The following suggestions may be useful:
- Consider the best places in the STEM Lab to add scaffolding:
- Once students have completed the Driving Test Activity in Session 3, additional tasks can be added for extra practice.
- Or, as students develop their strategy in Session 4, they may find they need extra practice with different scoring tasks to implement their chosen strategy successfully. This is also a good time to discuss route choice — whether to drive around Field obstacles or under the wall barrier — as part of their overall strategy.
- Let students take the lead in determining the level of scaffolding they need. Some groups will benefit from breaking the game down very slowly and incrementally, while others will feel this unnecessary. Students can also suggest and design their own scaffolded practice tasks based on their individual abilities and experience.
- Because the Task Cards in the STEM Lab are editable, you can modify them to create your own. Revising Task Cards can help you focus student's attention on scaffolded elements of the game, in the ways that work best for your team. View these articles to learn more about customizing resources, like Task Cards, with Google Drive or Microsoft Office.
- Encourage students to include data collection when practicing. Have students time themselves completing activities, and record their results in their engineering notebooks. They can also draw any planned paths in their notebooks. This data will be helpful as they begin to create their first game strategy.