PD+ Live Course: Introduction to VEX IQ (March 2022)

[Jean_Streepey]

I agree that last week’s class was great and made me much more comfortable with the resources available, thank you! Looking forward to tonight!

In response to our pre-class work:

• I LOVE that the STEMLabs are student facing and follow the same pattern with each lesson!
• I LOVE the videos in the Learn Sections
• For implementing, I’m thinking of doing a hybrid of what we’ve done in this class:

1. Watch the video about the parts in the classroom kits
2. Print the IQ Posters to hang in the classrooms
3. Build the Basebot using the online instructions
4. “Your first Project in VexCode IQ” (the one we did going back and forth)
5. Watch “Why use an Engineering Notebook” and show how to make a table of contents at the front. Print or purchase grid notebooks.
6. STEM Lab Unit - Tug of War

Just initial thoughts - I’m totally open to suggestions!

[Lauren_Harter]

Amazing Jean!

Thanks so much for sharing I think this is an amazing plan!

I also wanted to share with the class this resource that I made that breaks down all the IQ Units and the concepts inside of them. Check it out and let me know what you think! This is based off of the feedback from the class on resources that we could possibly make in order to make the concepts in each Unit more visible.

[Mark_Johnston]

@Anna_Blake

Here is a good quick look at a comparison for IQ 2nd Generation vs. 1st Generation - here

[Mark_Johnston]

I don’t remember who was asking in class tonight but my youtube channel is here:

Mark Johnston

[Lauren_Harter]

Awesome thanks Mark! Also everyone, feel free to post questions or some of your code here as you explore VR this week! Here is an article that I wrote on applied math with VR, check it out

[Anna_Blake]

Thanks @Mark_Johnston! This is super helpful!

[Andi_Sutphen]

[Jessica_Drayer]

Storm the Castle!
I’ve done this with my middle schoolers last fall, and they loved it! I played it again this week just to review, and it’s still so fun. It’s accessible but also challenging. Students definitely needed a background in some basic coding sequences. My students had only done a little coding, so they needed some background. I had started with the drive challenge, and then the basketball drill activity. Doing those first were important for laying to foundation for this one so the students didn’t get too overwhelmed. One thing I really like is the increasing challenge levels. With my students the only assignment was level 1, but they knew if they wanted to continue and challenge themselves more, they could do 2 and 3, and level 3 gets super involved with coding! Being able to meet the needs and instructional level of all my students is one of the things I love most about this lesson!

[Anna_Blake]

Here’s my attempt!

I made a video but it was too large.

@Jessica_Drayer I do use this as one of my first VR lessons with my 3-5 grade students. I find that it’s fun knocking the castles down. I also enjoy showing them my solution and model how to iterate to find the correct distance.

I think this is a great way to connect to the idea of functions and patterns.

For my students in elementary school, I like to show them half of the solution and then have them work with partners.

I’m interested to hear what middle school teachers say about teaching this lesson.

Thanks! Talk to everyone tonight!

[Jessica_Drayer]

• What are your thoughts on the videos about teaching creativity and student engagement?
  I LOVED the definition of “creativity.” I had thought of originality, but I had never intentionally considered task appropriateness as part of creativity, but it makes so much sense that it’s only truly creative if it appropriately solves the problem as well as is original. This will definitely change my focus in my introductions and the quick whole group time as I make it even more clear in our shared goals that it’s not just achieving a task, but to have a solution that is task appropriate and original.
  With student engagement, I feel VEX robotics allows that to happen so naturally and easily. My students are immediately excited. It is so amazing and true that with Vex robotics, it has a very low barrier of entry, even for my students with no previous experience and less background knowledge to pull from. Yet, it has a rewarding, high ceiling of creativity as students created an entire emergency response vehicle fleet in our Creature Creation challenge!
• How do you currently give effective feedback to your students?
  Reflecting on this, my often my feedback in phrased on terms of questions. How did it get to the end goal? Is it turning the right way? Could you get the robot there in fewer lines of code? I loved the insights of ensuring feedback is project focused and not student focused. I am still reflecting on the effectiveness of feedback being project focused and phrased in statements vs. project focused and phrased as questions. Would love to discuss and hear other educators’ thoughts.
• What are some goals or next steps to implement VEX IQ in your classroom?
  My biggest goal is since all my students grades 3-8 had no robotics experience, I started them all with VexGO. I would love to have my future middle school students progress to VexIQ. Do I progress them up after just 1 year of GO? Should I wait another year? Thoughts?
• What did you find helpful about this course? What else would you like to learn?
  I loved the videos about educational pedagogy and research, growing and reflecting as an educator. I also loved the hands-on builds and challenges. As the only tech teacher, and being ‘on my own’ essentially, would love to have more builds and challenges with this group to share highs and lows of implementation of builds.

[Anna_Blake]

Week 5 Post! Cannot believe this is the last week!

• What are your thoughts on the videos about teaching creativity and student engagement?

In the video with Jason, I really liked how he explained that teaching creativity is so important. I feel strongly that we need to prepare our students to be 21st Century Learners allowing creativity to grow in each student.
Similarly, I like how Jason points out appropriateness with creativity. When I was teaching my VEX GO Jobs STEM Unit, I found that creativity has to go along with effectiveness of idea. Can you put your idea into the real world or is it just a creative idea? I think this higher order thinking of creativity is so important!

• How do you currently give effective feedback to your students?

In the video I really agreed with Jason’s ideas on formative assessment. In the STEM Labs, I feel strongly that feedback is so important. I really enjoyed his recommendation for the Visible Thinking book. I’m a part of Agency by Design Pittsburgh and that philosophy of making learning visible is so current to education. Similarly, I enjoyed Jason’s comments of making a culture of feedback. I know when I’m teaching I try to model with students to communicate. With the pandemic, I feel that students lost a part of how to communicate with a partner or another group in a positive manner. Those discussions from students helping other students really allow a classroom to go above and beyond my expectations!

• What are some goals or next steps to implement VEX IQ in your classroom?

My first goal is going through and building some of the STEM Lab builds. I feel that’s critical first step so I know what to expect for my students. I’m excited to reveal the game for next year to my 5th graders who will hopefully be in my robotics middle school club next fall. I think I’ll take the VEX IQ Educators’ Certification and get all ready for the fall.

• What did you find helpful about this course? What else would you like to learn?

I really enjoyed unpacking all the resources. I love a good hands-on training and this really hit the spot. I also have enjoyed listening and networking with educators all over the world. I’ve found their suggestions on how to implement just as important as unpacking the resources. This was a vital course and I really appreciate that you had it and recorded it so I can look back when I’m ankle deep in my after-school VEX IQ club next fall.

[Aimee_DeFoe]

Hi All!

I had a great time subbing in IQ class last night! We packed a ton of significant discussion into that hour, for sure!

We talked quite a bit about the idea of appropriateness being central to creativity - we all agreed that we hadn’t thought about it in exactly that way prior to watching @Jason_McKenna 's Teaching Creativity Video.. That led to talking about creative constraints, and how they can actually help students dig more deeply into something and free their creativity, rather than stifling it.

We also discussed how many of the topics covered in the learning objectives for this sessions - fostering creativity, effective feedback, and formative assessment all have a symbiotic relationship with a positive classroom environment.

Jess brought up some questions about using questions vs. statements as feedback - and we agreed that they can both be effective, depending on the circumstances. Knowing your students and creating that positive environment is critical, so that students understand the intention of your feedback. We talked about making sure feedback targets the project and not the students - making sure to depersonalize it, and how modeling good feedback allows students to be able to provide effective feedback for one another.

Everyone shared ways they use formative assessment in class as well - if anyone wants to post their ideas here to share, that would be fantastic!

We also talked about IQ Activities - how they are student facing, how they can be done in a short amount of time with minimal prep.

Oh - and how it is important to set students up for success right off the bat when learning CS and Robotics - that it is best to start slow and build students confidence and positive attitudes towards STEM, especially when they are middle school students who have no background in robotics or CS.

Finally, I meant to mention the Habits of Mind Playlist as a resource that you all might want to check out - there is a video in there about the habit of Creating, Imagining, and Innovating as well as several others that are relevant to last night’s discussion.

I think that’s about it - if I missed anything or anyone has questions, comments or suggestions, please share them!

[Anna_Blake]

Thank you sharing the Habits of Mind Playlist. I think I’ll be watching this playlist today!