Hi All… I posted awhile back Robot Recess Games #1 about using VEX 123 to play Robot Tic Tac Toe. My students still always ask for that! I even have classroom teachers telling me that students are asking to come to my room as a prize to play Robot Tic Tac Toe!
As our first snow has fallen, I tried out another Recess game today with VEX 123… Robot TAG!!
First off… let the kids decorate the amazing art rings with their own robot emblem. This not only is a fun art connection, it also helps them keep track of their robot during robot tag.
Connect all the boards together to make the biggest play area that you can. Have students place their robots with their decorated art rings onto the large connected board play space.
This is a more advanced code, so I would suggest making sure your kiddos are comfortable with the basic coder cards for Robot Recess Game #1: Tic Tac Toe.
What is great about this Recess Game, Robot TAG is that it introduces kids to sensors. While sensors can be challenging for the younger kids, this game made my kids so motivated to learn sensors. The easiest code is for students to put “drive until object” and then “turn around.” And then place a “return to start” code card so it keeps repeating that code. This code introduces students to sensors and looping, which are advanced algorithmic codes, but presented in a fun game, so the kids are engaged and motivated to learn the advanced coding skills.
I had all my students place their robot on the edge of the board and then said “GO!” The students loved to see and shout how which robots their robot ‘tagged’ as it moved around the board.
The first time we played this, I just had the students keep track. That was a little chaotic. Then I created ‘players’ and ‘scorekeepers’ so one person in the pair was the robot decorater/programmer/driver and the other partner was the ‘scorekeeper’ tracking how many robots their robot ‘tagged.’ This was a great way to keep all kids engaged.
Students even asked for a competition runoff where the two robots with the most ‘tags’ were the only two on the board and they competed to see who would win (shrinking the board was helpful in making this not last forever!).
Using Robots for Indoor Recess was a complete win!
Anyone else who tries it out, let me know how it goes. Anyone improvements? Additional ideas? Let’s collaborate to get the best game creation! Any other recess games we can think of with VEX 123 to keep these kids engaged, entertained and learning? Let’s work together!
Love our VEX Community!!
