The VEX IQ Leaderboard is a fun and interactive tool that can be used to display and document student performance in STEM Lab Unit challenges and competitions, keeping students engaged with each other and the competition.
Using the VEX IQ Leaderboard with Your Classroom Competition
The VEX IQ (2nd gen) STEM Lab Units are focused around classroom competitions. Competitions promote collaboration and naturally motivate students to improve their robots, their strategy, and their code. The VEX IQ Leaderboard is designed to help facilitate these classroom competitions by providing an interactive tool for educators to use to present and record competition data.
- See this article for information on running a STEM Lab classroom competition.
- See this article for guidance on running a STEM Lab challenge.
- See this article for guidance on facilitating a STEM Lab competition
Display the leaderboard throughout your competition to show team scores and ranking, making it easy for students to visualize overall team performance throughout the competition.
Customizing the Leaderboard for Your Competition
The steps below outline how to add information and customize the leaderboard for your classroom competition.
Access the VEX IQ Leaderboard
Access the VEX IQ Leaderboard at https://education.vex.com/leaderboard/iq .
Or, from the Teacher Portal in any IQ (2nd generation) STEM Lab Unit.
Name Your Leaderboard
The leaderboard name text is editable.
Rename the leaderboard by selecting “Leaderboard Name” and edit the text.
Select anywhere outside of the name text or select "Enter" once finished.
Label Score Columns
The score column text is editable.
Rename the columns by selecting the title and edit the text.
Select anywhere outside of the text or select "Enter" once finished.
For example, the Cube Collector Competition has two runs — one autonomous, and one for driver control. The leaderboard in this image has a column to track the score for each run.
Select the "+” or “-” icon to add or delete score columns.
Add Team Names
Select a team in the Team Name column to enter a team name in the leaderboard.
Add more teams by selecting the “Add Team” button.
Delete teams by selecting the trashcan icon.
Once you have added all participating teams and score columns, you are ready to start the classroom competition.
Running a Classroom Competition with the VEX IQ Leaderboard
The leaderboard makes it easy to run a classroom competition. The accessible interface allows you to display the time for all students competing to see, as well as input scores and see team rankings update in real time as the competition progresses.
Keep Time for Competitions
Select “Start” to start the timer on the leaderboard.
Select “Stop” to end the competition run and stop the timer.
Select “Reset” to set the timer back to zero for the next run of the competition.
See Scores and Team Ranking in Real-time
Add team scores by selecting a score in the score column, then add the score. Scores can be changed or overwritten at any time.
Scores for multiple runs are automatically totaled for each team and appear in the "Total Score" column.
As scores are added, the teams will automatically be ordered by rank from highest to lowest score. If two teams have the same score, they will share the same rank.
Document and Celebrate Student Performance
Select “Print Leaderboard” to print or save the the entire leaderboard as a PDF.
The PDF will display the team names as well as the scores.
Select the printer icon to print or save an individual team certificate as a PDF.
The certificate will include the competition name, team name, team rank, and the team's total score.
Putting it All Together - Alaina's Story
Alaina is a 7th grade STEM Teacher and is preparing to run the classroom competition for the Cube Collector STEM Lab Unit. Her students have been iterating on autonomous and driver control strategies and they are excited to compete. Alaina set up the VEX IQ Leaderboard on her smartboard so that it can be displayed throughout the competition, and her students can easily see it to keep track of scores and team ranking.
At the beginning of each run of the competition, Alaina can start and stop the timer directly from the leaderboard, so students can see both the time of each run, and their current score as they are competing. This ensures all students are on the same page and can remain focused on competing.
As the competition progresses, the excitement builds because each team can see their name move up and down in the ranking as more scores are added. When the competition is complete, Alaina prints out a certificate for each team that they can put in their engineering notebooks. This allows students to see how they progress from competition to competition.
Alaina also prints out the full competition leaderboard and displays it on the classroom bulletin board for all of her classes. She has a section for each class that displays a printout of the entire leaderboard for that class's competition. Students can see how their performance compares to teams in other classes, building a healthy competition that motivates her students to refine and improve their code, game strategy and robot builds for each competition.
The VEX IQ Leaderboard helps Alaina motivate her students while giving them a way to contribute to running the classroom competitions. The leaderboard also provides a way for her and her students to collect and display the data from competitions in an authentic way.