The REC curriculum is $1000. Is this curriculum worth it? I have no engineering background and my students are in middle school with elementary math skills at best.
I teach middle school and looked around and adapt to what I need. The question is how many sessions do you have with the students? What do you want them to learn or state standards to meet? I have 8th graders for a half trimester cycle in Technology/Engineering class. We do have a classroom swept away field, so you can do interesting things. Look at the book on VEX Robotics EDR product website. You will also find links to Autodesk (Free) and other curriculums.
http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex/classroom/curriculum
Classroom Competition Teacher’s Handbook
I found the following site interesting: http://www.teachdesign.org.uk/vex-clawbot-project/
Dougherty Valley HS Robotics has resources: http://www.dvhsrobotics.com/Resources/lessons
You can adapt to your needs.
There are many other teachers on the board who probably have great resources and wisdom to share.
I wish that VEXforum had not gotten rid of the In the Classroom section.
I assume that for $1000 that comes with software, what else does it include?
The $1000 is just for the curriculum. When you add the kits with it, it comes out to almost $8000. Trying to piece together a curriculum is not working and it’s not like Lego where there are various books with detailed building instructions and programming. For all that money, it better be worth it.
Not sure what to tell you.
ROBOTC also has a curriculum, not sure how old it is, I heard it was being updated.
http://www.robotc.net/education/curriculum/cortex/
I would try and get more feedback from other teachers before spending a large amount of money. What do you have in the way of VEX kits (or parts) so far? Have you worked with any other robotic systems (ie. lego)?
I’m just curious: how many robot teams do you plan on forming with that and how many kids per team?
One of the teachers tried to do Vex maybe 6 years ago, so that’s what I have. We are using the controller with crystal and a whole mix up of motors, some are 393 and some don’t even have a #. We only have a limited number of motor 29 attachments so I tried to distribute it equally as best I can. We have some steel and some aluminum for metal.
We have an FLL team as well. Things in that class is so much smoother. The books that I have really help the students with the basic things that they need for competition. We also receive a huge grant so we have a surplus of bots and pieces.
I’m planning on having one team this year. They recommended that I keep my class separate from the competition. That way I can have 10 kids a semester filter through their curriculum and then have a club/competition team after school. It’s a lot of money for such a small school, but we are trying to add more rigourous curriculum to keep kids from transferring to other schools.
Nalobots,
The community has given you some great jumping off points for sure. Rest assured, you are one of thousands of educators using VEX in the classroom, “separate” from your competition team(s). As education manager for VEX Robotics, and a former teacher that did exactly what you’re doing, I’m here to assist as well.
The direct link to the FREE VEX EDR curriculum is here:
curriculum.vexrobotics.com
It is complete with unit pre/post tests, teacher/standards matching materials, lessons and much more. You will likely find it is “more” than you desire or have time to teach, but there is plenty to pull from to share you ideal “complete” curriculum.
Best wishes in your endeavors, and please feel free to contact me directly for a more detailed conversation - [email protected] .
Nalobits,
I wouldn’t recommend the REC Curriculum from Intelitek for your situation. A bitof background here is I helped start a program based on this curriculum and am a huge fan of it in the right place. The LMS that comes with it is a great resource as it becomes a virtual grade book but the class in general is set up more for a high school level. The math does get into kinematics which is above what you stated. Also you really need to get a classroom kit for 2-4 students so each of them gets a hands on experience. The lessons do come with very detailed instructions and even animation of how to put together the projects. It is also based on easyC as the programming environment which could also be an extra cost. It is a great program that I recommend to many and I have incorporated many of the ideas such as the way the engineering design process is presented into my own program, but I think some of the other options listed would be better for your program.
thanks for all your help.
thanks for your responses. The only thing that I don’t like about the free Vex Curriculum is that it doesn’t come with detailed instructions on how to build the different systems. Does the REC come with step by step instructions on how to build for example, a three stage elevator lift, or a double reverse four bar?
I doub’t you will find that level of instruction in any curriculum. You will find examples here on the forum, but even then it’s unusual to find the necessary detail to duplicate them exactly.
I posted a design for an intermediate level robot here a couple of years ago.
open source robot (and subsequent posts).
I posted some detail on a drive system last year here.
Robot drive sub-systems
and a whole thread on a three stage elevator lift here.
triple lift preview
Often teams are reluctant to provide details on successful designs as they don’t want to be copied.
Ah, your students will need to have to do some thinking! Good models of subsystems can be found on bots’n’stiff website:
http://botsnstuff.com/wiki/Main_Page
Enough to get them thinking and build.
Your students should also research the forum and youtube. Many teams put up tutorials. Again, mileage may vary, but your students need to be able to research and adapt designs as a skill.
Yes, as far as I know, the 15,800 page Vex manual that details some of the more common designs and how to build them and program them has yet to be created. As a living body of knowledge, this forum is probably the closest thing that comes to that. However, in addition to searching through and reading the forum, you and your kids can learn a lot by watching videos on YouTube. You can often freeze the action and examine the mechanisms. You can also attend tournaments, talk to the teams that are operating at a level you think is commensurate with your own, even ask if they don’t mind your taking some photos.
But, generally speaking, I would not try to get too complicated too quickly. It’s better to encourage your kids to start out with something simple that they can understand thoroughly and program well. In this year’s game, Nothing But Net, it will be harder to simply look at a robot and copy it since much of the magic of the better teams will probably be hidden in programming, sensor integration and strategy. Simple robots can do quite well in tournaments if the kids really know how to use them to their utmost.
Long story short, I think everyone who starts out with this needs to get good at using the internet to do research. There are lots of resources out there, and it’s good for the kids to learn how to find them. 
Thanks for everyone’s post. I totally agree with all of you. I shouldn’t be the only one finding all the resources and keeping it simple will make the experience much more fun. I want them to enjoy themselves and to have a good time, but I also want them to work hard and learn. im sure things will be alright. Thanks again people. I really apreciate it.
All hail the clawbot
Claw on a 2 motor base
Claw on a 4 motor base
Claw on omni wheels (Just two on the front and then 4 and then in the X drive version)
Claw on mecanum base
Claw with a wrist
Claw with a second shoulder
Claw with a second wrist and second shoulder
Advanced gripper
Multiple claws
You can do 10 weeks with just a clawbot
All hail the clawbot!
I agree. Heck, you can even drop the claw and learn heaps with just a pushbot if you decorate it with sensors and have your kids learn how to program and use the sensors to their utmost. And a well-built pushbot in this year’s game could probably contribute a lot to its alliance by simply playing defense (pushing the opponent around so it can’t aim very well and pushing balls out of reach so it can’t intake them quickly).