I am teaching a Vex IQ Robotics class this year for the first time. We are going through the STEM Lab lessons in the pacing guide as we do not have a competition kit. However, we plan to obtain a competition kit and compete next year.
I will have teams of 3-4 students per kit in my classroom with 1 laptop per group. How do I divide up the work to keep all the students engaged in each step of the process? I’m open to any tips. We are very excited to begin our Vex journey!
You should have everyone work together on the notebooking steps, and then ask them to delegate roles and have 1-2 people notebooking and 2 building. This is a good way to make sure everyone gets a change to help.
You should also have 1-2 people code, because more can get hectic.
Hi @FCC_AJ,
First of all, I think that teams should be only 3 kids or greater than 4. 4 may sound good but with 4, only one kid isn’t going to be on drive team at competitions… Ime if you want to have a high-functioning 3-person team, the kids need to put in a lot of effort and time. 5 people may be the best way to go.
@3383B is right, have around 1-2 people notebooking regularly and the whole team pitch in sometimes. 1-2 kids for building and 1-2 kids for coding later as well. Over 3 kids on one thing can get pretty complicated.
Later on, after they have more exposure to robotics, ask them to choose their regular roles (notebooker, builder, coder etc.) Driver is NOT A ROLE. If they can’t decide, have rotations for roles (yes I know it’s not the best choice but better than a kid’s parent getting angry). Of course it’s fine to let them try new things on a regular basis but they should still have a specialty/main subject.
Good luck!
This is very helpful! Thank you! Now that our semester has started, I can better understand how the roles play out and your advice definitely makes sense!
Thank you! I ended up having more kids join my class and we now have teams of 5. It’s working well, but I need to figure out how to keep the kids who are not actively building or coding engaged in the lesson since we only have 1 laptop per group. However, I’m learning a lot as I go! Thanks again!