123 Educators Start Here

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 formate as well as in an easily printable pdf.

• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for an Introduction to VEX 123 (Google Doc)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for an Introduction to VEX 123 (pdf)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for ELA (Google Doc)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for ELA (pdf)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for Math (Google Doc)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for Math (pdf)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for Art (Google Doc)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for Art (pdf)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for SEL (Google Doc)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for SEL (pdf)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for Using All 3 Coding Methods (Google Doc)
• 9 Week Scope and Sequence for Using All 3 Coding Methods (pdf)
• Learn as You Go Scope and Sequence
• Learn as You Go with PD+ Scope and Sequence

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

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.

• 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.

One lesson, taught three ways

The three methods of coding with VEX 123 – Touch buttons, the Coder and Coder cards, and VEXcode 123 – not only raise the ceiling of the kinds of coding that can be done with the 123 Robot, they also provide educators with great flexibility in how they teach with VEX 123. The same STEM Lab or Activity can be taught across multiple grade levels by adapting the coding method that is being used. Similarly, students within the same class can complete the same activity using the coding methods that best meet their individual needs and developmental levels.

VEX Coder and Coder Cards lend themselves to differentiated instruction

When using the VEX Coder and Coder cards with the 123 Robot, the teacher is able to control the commands that students have access to while building their projects. This flexibility gives teachers the opportunity to offer different commands to different groups in order to best meet students’ needs and scaffold their learning appropriately. All students in a class can work on the same coding activity, yet use different commands to do so. Not only does this enhance students’ engagement by keeping them suitably challenged, it helps them see firsthand how there can be multiple ways to solve the same problem—an important habit of mind for young learners.

Want to make the most out of the VEX Coder as a teaching tool? Read these articles to learn more:

• Using the VEX Coder as a Teaching Tool
• Using Coder Card Posters in the Classroom

High ceiling with VEXcode 123 

Grow your teaching and learning as your students' capacity for coding grows. Begin with Touch buttons, grow to coding with the Coder and Coder cards, then expand to coding with VEXcode 123. VEXcode 123 gives an opportunity to build upon what students have learned through device-free, tangible coding methods to a block-based platform that offers a wealth of coding opportunities and challenges. 

• Learn more about VEXcode 123 in the VEX Library
• View the Cross the Line Activity to see an example of a VEXcode 123 Activity

Each STEM Lab Unit Overview includes a unit-specific Letter Home that gives families a window into the activities and learning their students are doing with VEX 123 at school. The Letter Home is an editable Google Doc that can be tailored to best meet the needs of your community, making it easy for you to add or remove information, translate the letter into additional languages, and include photos or other artifacts of student learning. All Letters Home include the following sections:

• Introduction - sets the stage for the STEM Lab Unit and explains the big questions that students will be exploring throughout the labs
• Look Inside the VEX 123 STEM Lab Unit - explains the activities in each Lab that students will be working on with their robots to explore the topic
• Vocabulary - offers general information about the purpose of vocabulary words in relation to students’ learning and a list of words that are relevant to the Unit
• Connection to Daily Life - explains connections between the kinds of things students are doing and learning and everyday occurrences and experiences that families can talk about and share with their students
• Follow up questions to ask at home - gives families ‘dinner table’-style questions that they can use to help students talk about their experiences with VEX 123 to further build the home-school connections that support their learning
• Computer Science Starts Early with VEX 123 - offers a glimpse into the research-backed pedagogy that supports teaching and learning with 123

VEX 123 Posters and Printables can help paint the picture of how you are engaging with robotics and computer science in your classroom. Just as we have posters for other subject areas, VEX 123 provides posters that communicate that coding is part of your learning to anyone that enters your classroom. Using a poster to anchor a learning center, as part of a VEX 123 bulletin board, or as a hallway feature gives visibility to what you are doing and can be a conversation starter for classroom visitors.

Additionally, VEX 123 Printables offer paper and pencil worksheets and manipulatives that you can use to support planning and saving of student projects. Completed printables can be saved and used as part of a student portfolio, included in parent-teacher conferences, or hung on a VEX 123 bulletin board. Having printed projects accessible for students gives them a way to revisit their own and classmates’ experiences as their knowledge grows.

Check out these printables, posters, and bulletin boards ideas:

• VEX 123 Printables
• VEX 123 Posters
• Insights Article: Classroom Documentation with VEX 123 (Insights are a part of VEX PD+. View this article to get a glimpse of what a PD+ subscription offers.)

All VEX 123 STEM Labs and Activities offer students opportunities to engage in active learning with an emphasis on student understanding, spatial reasoning, and inquiry-based teaching. Throughout their work with VEX 123, students work collaboratively and gain practice in social-emotional learning skills like turn taking, listening, communicating, and compromise. VEX 123 can also be used as part of existing classroom curricula to support the development of foundational literacy and mathematical thinking skills.

• Learn more about Supporting Active Learning with VEX 123
• Learn more about Social Emotional Learning (SEL) with VEX 123
• Learn more about Supporting Literacy and Math with VEX 123
• Learn more about the research behind the VEX Continuum at research.vex.com

All VEX 123 curricular resources are aligned to standards. Not only can you see all of the standards that are aligned with VEX 123 STEM Lab units and lessons, but you can also view where and how each of those standards is met in one comprehensive document—including education standards from a variety of countries.

• Where and How Standards are Met
• Content Standards listings by country

The 9 week scope and sequences offered above to help you get started just scratch the surface of the breadth and depth of curricular offerings with VEX 123! The Cumulative Pacing Guide includes all of the available STEM Labs, Activity Series, and Activities in a filterable interface that allows you to view subsets of lessons in a particular subject or coding method. You can use the Pacing Guide in tandem with education.vex.com to help you sequence lessons in a way that best suits your students’ needs and interests.

• How to filter the Cumulative Pacing Guide
• View the VEX 123 Cumulative Pacing Guide

Additionally, the 1:1 Pacing Guide offers alignment between VEX 123 STEM Lab Units and Activities that share common concepts. STEM Labs are listed in order from beginner to more advanced, and the connected Activities can be used in sequence to extend Lab learnings and capitalize on student engagement around a particular topic.

• View the 1:1 Pacing Guide for VEX 123

VEX Library offers ongoing support 

The VEX Library provides self-serve support exists to help users quickly find detailed information about all things VEX 123 in one place. From teaching with a STEM Lab to charging a battery, block tutorials to printables, the VEX Library is a wealth of resources, information, and step by step instructions to help you learn and problem solve as you are teaching with VEX 123. 

• View the VEX 123 Section of the VEX Library to learn more.