Welcome to the thread for the “Thinking Outside the Classroom” Live Session! Here, you have the opportunity to discuss with VEX Experts and educators from around the world about getting more students engaged into informal learning spaces with VEX. You can also ask questions and provide suggestions for what you would like to see discussed during each session in this series. We’re so excited to learn with you! 
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In Session 1 on Monday, March 27th, you will learn all about where to get started when planning a summer camp. Summer is quickly approaching and camps can be great opportunities for community outreach, fundraisers, or just another way to keep campers working with STEM and CS over summer break.
You will learn:
- All the resources available for you at camps.vex.com
- How to walk through the How to Plan camp document
- What resources are in the Camp Manual and how to use them
You will walk away with your very own plan for a one week camp by the end of the session! Ready for use this summer.
If you have specific questions, please post here! So excited to see you all in a couple weeks to talk about camps
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Thanks so much! I will register now.
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Cant wait to see you there!
Is there anything in particular you are interested in with the session? I would be happy to tailor to some of your questions during the time.
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@Alaina_Caulkett Our school district hosts a summer camp. This year we are going to incorporate VEX and we are brainstorming different ideas to so that the summer ideas do not intertwine with our school year activities.
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Okay that’s great! We can talk through some ideas so there are special activities just for camp.
I’d love to learn more about implementing this as well. I work in the same school district as @Desiree_White-Price and our district is offering an Opportunity Camp again this summer.
@Alaina_Caulkett I am writing a Scope & Sequence for our district’s Summer Camp for VexGo and would like to get a few ideas that are things that can be done in one 1 hour session that are different from the activities and STEM labs we use during the year. I want the kids to not be repeating things they have already done or will do during the regular school year.
Okay great! Looks like we all have similar goals here for you, @Danielle_McCoy and @Desiree_White-Price.
I have two more questions to help tailor our planning talks during the session.
- What platforms do you all use? 123 and GO?
- What are some of the STEM Labs and activities you all do NOT want to use for Summer Camp? This way the ‘example’ camp we plan during the session can be of the most use to you all.
Thanks and looking forward to the session in less than 2 weeks!
@Alaina_Caulkett Hi…I am writing the Scope & Sequence for our summer program for VexGo and possibly IQ. @Desiree_White-Price is writing the Vex 123. We will be collaborating on all platforms as well. We were hoping to incorporate a variety of Math, ELA, and Science activities. Each session we need to plan (per grade level) will be an hour. We don’t want to use activities that will need to carry over because students will only be using the platform once a week. It’s not necessarily a problem to repeat activities or Labs we have done this year, or will do next year, as long as it’s not all the same. We were hoping for some suggestions from you guys with what would fit into our parameters.
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Thanks for the thorough information! I will use this to tailor our session in a couple weeks here and have an example for 123, GO, and IQ just in case you end up using that as well. We will use versions of some common STEM Labs and activities but can also talk about ways to put a spin on them so they are fun and new for the camp setting
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Sorry for all the questions, I just want to be able to help you and @Desiree_White-Price the best I can!
How many days is each camp? And how many hours per day of activities?
@Alaina_Caulkett @Desiree_White-Price We are writing for 6 weeks of camp. Each week will be an hour session. This is grades K-7…so I was thinking 6 activities per grade level. I was also thinking of trying to have 2 math, 2 reading, and 2 science based lessons. Those were just preliminary ideas. We are open to however you think it can be best planned. Thanks.
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We would like to make the lessons meaningful and out of the traditional scope and sequence that we are using during the regular academic school year. We want this to be exciting for the students.
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@Alaina_Caulkett I was thinking today…since I am writing for 3 (3-5) grade levels of Vex Go…would it be possible to just create 1 lesson and adapt it for the other grades?
Yeah I think that would work well! Creating one lesson for GO, one for 123 and one for IQ and then you can have modifications that make it meaningful to that specific age of students.
I was thinking about the larger organizer of Missions to Mars for GO students because we have that theming in some STEM Lab Units already. You could have them write about their mission to mars (a journal entry after) for the ELA connection, calculate the perimeter of their Mars Base for a math connection, and so much more. But those activities beyond a STEM Lab could be tailored for each grade level.
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@Tina_Dietrich @Alaina_Caulkett That could be a possibility. I had some extra GO kit pieces and my 123 students created a obstacle course. That will also set our lessons for the summer different from our school year lessons.
One of the great things about the Art Ring is that it is also compatible with GO and IQ pieces! So you could have students learn about GO pieces and design an attachment for their Art Ring to become an ocean cleaning machine and do something like the Ocean Emergency VEX GO STEM Lab Unit with the 123 Robot and GO pieces as the attachment. That could be something fun and science-focused that none of your students have done before.
