I have 20 students, 10 sets of VEX IQ competition kits, and two fields. 10 students have studied six 2Gen activities in STEM Lib, and the other students have some Lego experience. Now I’m thinking to get everyone started preparing for this year’s VIQRC competition,
Each student is committed to coming to the studio for at least 1.5 hours on weekends, and they can also come for 1.5 hours on weekdays. This time can be extended.
My current plan is:
To divide into teams of two, have 6-8 people in one class together, and when it comes to the final competition, it is likely to be adjusted to a team of 3-4 people.
Course content is roughly as follows:
w1: Competition rules, brainstorming scoring strategies, robot structures. Make a clawbot and make the most basic iteration.
w2-w4: Modify the robot’s chassis, switch to a four-wheel drive or try an H-chassis, switch the joystick control mode, etc.
w5-w8: Try to change the way the ball is thrown, trebuchet, flywheel, slingshot, etc.
w9-w12: Try different intake modes, complete the first version of the robot.
w12+: Based on the situation of participating in the competition, find some points of improvement every week and make changes.
But I think there are many problems:
The three hours per week is not very sufficient.
As a tutor, should I make an example for the students to follow, or should I really let the kids develop freely. I’m worried that it would be challenging for many students who have zero foundation.
Is my robot exclusively for a certain team or is everyone sharing the same robot?
All students do the same work or divide the work during training: programmers, designers, builders, etc.
I know my questions are a bit messy, please, experts, give me some ideas, thank you.
To quote R1, One robot per team and as explained in G4, the robot must represent the skill level of the team so no your teams should not share a robot
I may be misunderstanding but as per G4 A and B, you cannot swap the teams around (during the season) for strategic reasons (but obviously if someone has to move or something then that’s ok) and G4 B the team that qualifies for a competition, nationals, worlds, etc, must be the team that competes. If you just mean that they would be in bigger teams until their first competition, then that would mean problems with the notebook and roles etc. But if you think it would be easier for the kids to be in bigger groups while they learn the basics, then split into smaller teams to build their competition robot that could work.
Do you mean an example robot that the team would recreate? As per G2 “VIQRC is a student-centered program”. Your plan for the weeks seems pretty solid as it will provide a foundation for the kids to learn and then build their own robot. In the end, it will most likely be better for you to teach them the basics, but let them explore their ideas. And make sure to remind them, its better to try and fail, then not try at all.
You may wish to assign a team captain and maybe some roles to outline in the notebook but, frankly, sometimes roles excuses to not do work. I honestly do not know your kids and so I can only give you my experience. In my experience, those who say they are coders, never do any code. In my experience, the role of the coder is the role of someone who just wants an easy ride with no work. Whilst my team have various experience and did not all get the same like you plan to do, their was a lot of “I don’t know how” being used instead of “I don’t want to try”. I would just make sure to remind the teams that they all need to help and put in dedication as it would not be fair to their fellow team members.
Hope this helps (I wish my English essays were on VEX I would get the highest score lol)
Time can be a challenge, we meet about 6 hours per week. Just figure out what is the maximum time you can devote.
Per the rules, making an example for your kids is a no-no. If you wanted to demonstrate/teach a sub-system for them, that would be ok. But building an example robot for them to copy would be against the student centered model. I am in the process of teaching mine about a couple different subsystems that could be used in a launcher. Eventually they will decide which one they like best or come up with their own idea. I have some of my older students that built robots for Pitching In show students how they built ball launchers for that game.
Each team should build their own robot. I am not sure how you plan on creating teams. I typically like to create teams of three, four max. Sounds like you could create five teams of four and each team would have two kits to work with.
My teams always seem to figure out their jobs/roles on the team. We usually have dedicated drivers emerge, they get the most driving time. I do encourage all team members to practice driving, you never know when someone might miss a competition. My teams usually have one member that learns the coding, one or two that work together to build, and one person to work on the notebook. I leave this up to the students and only get involved if there is an issue that needs addressing.
Your timeline looks good, and is a great plan for progression through the process.