Hello!
I am looking for people who would like to discuss best practices for using the new STEM Labs with an LMS. By “new” I mean the “Seek, Play, Apply, Rethink, Know” format.
I plan to use the V5 STEM Labs for a high school Introduction to Robotics class. The team from Miami-Dade County at the VEX Educators Conference has done a tremendous job with Schoology, and I am interested in creating something similar with Canvas.
I have found a couple of courses in the Commons that use V5, but those courses pre-date the new STEM Lab format. I am also trying to decide how much content I really want to put in Canvas since the platform on the VEX STEM Labs is so user friendly already. I think it really just comes down to what content needs to be submitted and assessed so I can have it recorded in the LMS.
I created this Canvas Module for my Industrial Robotics course which uses the VEX V5 Workcell: Link to Canvas Commons - Competency #1: Industrial Robotics. I set the license for this module to “Public Domain” because all of the STEM Lab content is freely available. Please let me know if you happen to know whether Public Domain is the appropriate license for Canvas Modules that include links to VEX content.
Let me know if you are interested in collaborating or if you would like to share some existing Canvas resources!
Hi @Molly_Gomes! This is great!
When you say new Labs, do you mean the V5 SPARK Labs or the Learn Practice Compete Labs that we have for EXP?
We do have this article that covers how to teach EXP STEM Labs using V5 Kits, but the V5 STEM Labs are also great!
We also recently made this article for IQ for those who want to take our STEM Lab videos and put them in their own LMS. We can do something similar for the EXP videos if you think this would be helpful.
I’m going to tag @Omar_Cortez here because I think he might have some resources 
not sure if @LORI_COLANGELO uses Canvas as well.
Hi @Lauren_Harter!
Thank you for clarifying the difference between the SPARK Labs and the Learn, Practice, Complete Labs. And thank you for the article using EXP labs with V5 kits! I think the Learn, Practice, Complete Labs would the best for first time robotics students, so I think I’ll start with those.
I really like the layout of the Learn, Practice, Complete Labs the way they appear on your website. I plan to have my students navigate to the STEM Labs (I’ll provide a link to the lab in Canvas), and then I just need to decide how to have them “submit” their work.
I am thinking of creating a paper handout for students to use to write down ideas and draw their designs. I also think it could be cool to do a mini Digital Engineering Notebook for each STEM lab, modeled after the DEN templates for VRC. I could have students take photos of their handwritten/ drawn work and just insert the photos into the DEN. This would allow me to quickly see the design work in person during class, and also provide a long term record that could be submitted at the end of the project or for a final presentation.
Hi @Molly_Gomes! Absolutely
As far as work goes, I also know we have those Check Your Understanding questions baked into the Learn Practice Compete labs that you could keep as a google doc, or convert them into questions for Canvas.
For notebooks, we have two resources that I wanted to share that might be helpful:
I love all your ideas! Let me know which one you end up using, i’d love to see what your students produce.
@Molly_Gomes I also wanted to share some new build instructions that @Matthew_Goodwin made that you could use with V5 Kits as you work through the EXP Labs. The TrainingBot and the Advanced TrainingBot found at builds.vex.com. Matt made both PDF and 3D build instructions.
Matt builds the TrainingBot on camera during the Introduction to VEX V5 Training Course that I would also recommend.
1 Like
@Matthew_Goodwin is AMAZING! WOW!
Those notebooking resources are great, too! One of my kids is really excited about becoming the notebook lead for our VRC team next year. I told him about the presentations from the SAB students. He wants to bring his creativity to our notebook.
1 Like
@Molly_Gomes, @Matthew_Goodwin truly is the best! He’s a rockstar!
That’s great to hear about one of your students! I can’t wait to see what creativity he brings
1 Like
Hi Molly,
I started using Canvas this year. This is my first year teaching VEX V5 Robotics. I’m still trying to figure things out. I’m interested in discussing best practices. I clicked on your link to Canvas Commons. I saw one that I liked “VEX Robotics.” The author is Mark Waterstreet. I tried to upload to my Canvas but was unsuccessful. Plus some of his content says, “page not found.” I wonder if there is a way to contact the author?
Interesting! I found Mark’s course as well, but I haven’t tried importing any of his content yet. I found a course by Nick Fenger titled “Robotics 2-Fenger.” That imported perfectly.
I did a little digging on Mark. I can’t find his email address, but we could contact him through his school, Academy for Urban Scholars.
Hey @Molly_Gomes and @David_Wettrich! I just wanted to point out that we had a request for the videos in the V5 Workcell Educator Certification to be in a downloadable format (for LMS purposes). So we put all of those in a Google Drive and here is the accompanying article! Just thought I would post it here in case anyone needs it, since this is the LMS thread.
We also have a very similar article for the IQ (2nd gen) STEM Lab videos. I hope this helps!
