GO Educators Start Here

Welcome to teachGO.vex.com!

Welcome educators! You are here because you understand the importance of starting STEM early with your students. You know that providing them with fun, meaningful, hands-on STEM experiences is key to making sure they perceive themselves as capable and creative engineers, coders, and problem-solvers.

We understand that no matter the setting, teaching is challenging. All teachers are extremely busy, juggling a multitude of demands on their time and energy. Our extensive, flexible VEX GO educator resources make it easy to bring STEM, computer science, and robotics to life for students in active and relevant ways—whether you are brand-new to teaching STEM or a seasoned veteran.

As you teach with VEX GO in your setting, this start page can serve as your hub for VEX GO resources. On this page you will find access to everything you need to successfully teach with VEX GO, beginning with our immersive, project-based integrated STEM curriculum. You will also find information and links to our unparalleled teacher resources and support, and ways to take your students’—and your own—VEX GO experience even further.

Aimee Defoe
Senior Education Developer, VEX Robotics

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Getting Started is Easy!

VEX offers free, online, integrated STEM curricula for teaching with VEX GO. Our Activities, Activity Series, and STEM Labs provide the support teachers need to easily immerse their students in collaborative, project-based STEM learning powered by the excitement of educational robotics. 

And, if you are new to teaching coding, block-based VEXcode GO helps you get started right away.

Illustration of various GO activities for robotics education, featuring colorful graphics and icons representing different learning tasks and challenges, designed to engage students in hands-on robotics experiences.

VEX GO 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 GO STEM Labs.

Our VEX GO Discovery Activities introduce students to the VEX GO Kit through short, simple spatial reasoning experiences that use just 12 pieces from the VEX GO Kit!

Flowchart illustrating the steps for the GO activity series, guiding users through the initial setup and programming process for VEX robotics.

VEX GO Activity Series are short sets of STEM Lessons based on engaging stories. Teacher Notes provide educators with direction on materials needed, setting up the activity, presenting the narrative, and implementing the activities successfully with students. Activity Series can be found on the STEM Labs page by filtering for 'Activity Series.'

Illustration of STEM labs for GO robotics, featuring various educational tools and equipment designed to enhance learning experiences in robotics and engineering.

VEX GO STEM Labs are complete curricular units that can be integrated into your existing curriculum or utilized in a sequential order to provide comprehensive integrated STEM learning throughout the school year.

Each STEM Lab provides a wealth of resources for teachers. They function as an online teacher’s manual and include: 

Want to learn more about VEX GO Activities, Activity Series and STEM Labs? VEX Professional Development Plus is a comprehensive suite of professional development offerings designed to support all teachers. Read the next section for details.


Learn Alongside Your Students!

VEX provides a variety of teacher learning and support materials that are designed to meet you exactly where you are. Teachers have a wide range of STEM teaching experiences and may need to get started teaching with VEX GO quickly. The following resources provide the level of support you need now, whether it is a gradual introduction to teaching with VEX GO or a deep dive into STEM pedagogy. VEX gives you the voice and choice you need in your learning to advance your knowledge and skills in that way that is right for you.

Introductory Scope and Sequences

You don’t need to be an engineer or a computer scientist to start teaching with VEX GO. The custom scope and sequences below will get your students started learning with GO right away—while you begin learning to teach with VEX GO at the same time! They present a series of easy-to-implement VEX GO lessons for your students alongside a curated, hands-on teacher learning experience for you. This is a great way to teach with VEX GO when your time is limited!

Check out these curated Scopes and Sequences for a 9-week implementation in the subject area of your choice. Scope and sequence documents are provided in an editable Google Doc format as well as in an easily printable pdf.

The VEX Library

The VEX Library is a free, searchable database of articles covering all aspects of teaching and learning with VEX. Quickly find information on any VEX GO topic you’d like to know more about, from using the VEX Classroom App to coding with VEXcode GO.


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.

VEX PD+ free tier

Diagram illustrating the initial setup process for VEX GO robotics, showing key components and connections, designed to guide users in starting their projects effectively.

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)

Diagram illustrating the initial setup steps for the VEX GO robotics system, featuring labeled components and connections to guide users in starting their projects effectively.

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.
Diagram illustrating the initial steps for using VEX GO robotics, featuring labeled components and connections to guide users in starting their projects effectively.
  • Live Sessions: Thematic, hour-long, expert-led sessions that provide insights and practical takeaways about teaching with VEX.
  • 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.


Ready to Learn More?

VEX GO Competitions

Bring all the excitement and motivation of a VEX Robotics Competition to your students in their setting. VEX GO Competitions give teachers another way to bring authentic STEM learning to students as they collaborate to compete in thematic classroom competitions. With imagination-capturing themes—Mars Math Expedition, Ocean Science Exploration, Village Engineering Construction, and City Technology Rebuild—a VEX GO Competition takes students’ learning further as they iterate on strategy and robot builds, and practice essential collaboration and teamwork skills. VEX GO Competitions make great culminating activities, year-end celebrations, and after-school projects!

Diagram illustrating the GO competition setup, featuring various components and their arrangement for participants to follow, located in the 'Start Here' section of the GO category.

Diagram illustrating the GO competition setup, featuring VEX Robotics components and layout instructions for participants to follow in the 'Start Here' section.

Diagram illustrating the GO competition setup, featuring robot placement and field layout, designed to guide users in understanding the initial steps for participation in the GO robotics competition.

Diagram illustrating the GO programming environment setup, featuring labeled components and connections for beginners, located in the 'Start Here' section of the GO category.

VEX GO Builds

Screenshot of the VEX GO builds codebase interface, showcasing various programming blocks and options for building and controlling VEX GO robots, located in the 'Start Here' section of the VEX Robotics knowledge base.

At builds.vex.com you can find easy-to-follow build instructions for every VEX GO build in our curriculum—over 42 different builds! Project them for your students, or print them out to help facilitate building in your classroom.

Standards and Research

Standards-aligned and backed by research, the VEX GO curriculum sits on a solid foundation. Everything you need to share with stakeholders and decision-makers is organized and readily available.

Visual representation of content standards for the GO category, illustrating key concepts and guidelines for starting projects with VEX Robotics.

See all of the standards that are aligned with VEX GO STEM Lab units and Activities in one place at standards.vex.com.

Dig into the proven research that underlies the instructional strategies and approaches used in VEX GO curriculum at research.vex.com.

Flowchart illustrating the research process for the GO category, outlining key steps and decision points for effective project initiation.

VEX GO Pacing Guides

Our pacing guides make planning straightforward and easy. The GO Cumulative Pacing Guide contains all of our STEM Labs, Activities, and Activity series in one place that you can use to plan instructional sequences that meet your goals. The GO 1:1 Pacing Guide provides a suggested sequence of instruction that incorporates all of our GO curricular materials and can be used to plan daily STEM instruction for an entire school year!

 

VEX GO Printables

Printable resources for the GO category, featuring various educational materials and activities to help users get started with robotics.

At printables.vex.com you will find all of our VEX GO printables and posters in one place, allowing you to make student learning visible! Use them to help students plan coding projects, organize themselves for group work, and sketch robot designs; add them to the walls as classroom documentation; or use them to assess student learning.

VEX GO Camps

Everything you need to run exciting VEX GO Camps can be found at camps.vex.com, no matter your setting or the time of year. Camp manuals, template schedules, sample flyers, welcome letters and more take the guesswork out of planning and running a VEX GO camp.

A visual guide for GO camps featuring a colorful layout of various robotics activities and resources, designed to help participants start their journey in robotics education.

Funding

Whether you are starting or expanding your educational robotics program, funding ideas and support for grant writing can be found at grants.vex.com.

VEX Sales and Technical Support

Support.vex.com provides product assistance. Get help selecting products, getting quotes and making purchases as well as with technical issues or product repair and replacement. VEX offers support by phone, email and chat.

Common GO Resources

For more information, help, and tips, check out the many resources at VEX Professional Development Plus

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