Programming Your Own VEX GO Robot With VEXcode GO

This course is for students who have their own (or their school’s) VEX GO robot at home and want to learn how to program it using VEXCode GOblock-based coding.  You must have a physical VEX GO robot to participate in this course.

This class meets once a week and every lesson we will have specific goals to plan and write programs, download them to the robot and test the code.  Students need an area (preferably on the floor) near their computer where they can test their robot running the programs.  If they have a way to show their results by moving their computer camera or utilizing their cell phone or a tablet camera, that would be helpful.  (Students can sign onto the Zoom session with more than one device to facilitate this).  

Each section will be limited to 2 learners so that the sessions can be very interactive between teacher and student and among the learners.  Students will be expected to share their screens to show their code for help and troubleshooting.  The teacher will demonstrate  the code on screen and help students perfect their code.  Students will then download their programs and share their results.  Students will be encouraged to help one another, ask questions, and work to solve problems with guidance from the teacher.

Learners need to know how to screen share and how to resize and switch windows so that they can see the teacher’s shared screen AND be able to work in the VEXCode GOprogram.  They are welcome to sign onto the Zoom session with more than one device if that is easier.  Learners should also know how to share their screen in Zoom.  I can help some with this, but cannot provide extensive technical support.  Parents are welcome to sit off-screen (but cannot participate directly in class) if they think their learner may need some assistance with this.  Students with learning disabilities, dyslexia, ASD, ADHD or other learning challenges are welcome to participate.  Extensive reading is NOT required in this course as most of the coding is block-based with some text input.

Lesson 1 – Introduction to VEX Go.  We will do a parts and software check and introduction and build the CodeBase robot.
Lesson 2 – Mars Rover Surface Operations –Students will modify robot and learn how to program robot to drive to sample, then how to drive to multiple objects
Lesson 3 - This Activity Series is designed to introduce students to coding an Eye Sensor in an interactive and engaging way.
Lesson 4 – Mars Rover Landing Challenge – Students will learn how to program the robot to use the Eye Sensor to detect an obstacle on the Mars landing area, then multiple objects
Lesson 5 and 6 - Mars Rover-Exploring Mars Geology – Students will learn how to program the robot to collect disks and sort them by color.

These lessons may be differentiated for learner interest and ability.