Well designed competitions engage students in a range of activities, address academically challenging concepts, and teach important 21st century skills. But, these benefits don’t have to be limited to organized competitions. You can also get all of the benefits of a competition, right in your classroom!
Last week, Part I of our Competing for the Future blog talked about using virtual competitions, like our VEX Nothing But Net and VEX IQ Bank Shot Robot Virtual World Competitions, as a way for your team to compete virtually. This week, we explore how you can use virtual competitions in your classroom to provide a unique and challenging learning experience for all students!
Step 1: Choose your competition type (simulation or fantasy)
RVW’s VEX Nothing But Net
The first step is to choose the type of competition you’d like to use in your classroom. Do you want to use a simulated competition, like the ones that they use in FIRST or the RECF competitions, do you want your competition to take place in a fantasy environment (underwater, outer space, on an island), or do you want to create your own competition?
Are you using LEGO or VEX?
LEGO and VEX are the two most widely used robotics competition platforms and there are great reasons to use both. The Robot Virtual Worlds team has a large selection of LEGO and VEX competitions for you to choose from:
RVW’s LEGO Urban Challenge
- VEX Nothing But Net – 2015 Game
- VEX IQ Bank Shot – 2015 Games
- LEGO Urban Challenge – 2015 Game (Available next week!)
- VEX Skyrise – 2014 Game
- VEX IQ Highrise – 2014 Game
- VEX IQ Beltway – Modified Autonomous 2014 Game
- VEX Toss Up- 2013 Game
- FTC LEGO/TETRIX Cascade – 2014 Game
- FTC LEGO/TETRIX Block Party – 2013 Game
You can download each of these games from the Robot Virtual Worlds Download Center.
Palm Island Game
Another option is to use one of the Robot Virtual Worlds fantasy worlds. These worlds are more playful and have specific goals built into them. You can choose from:
- Palm Island – Designed to teach and reinforce introductory and intermediate programming concepts involving sensor based robot movements.
- Operation Reset – Programmers are assigned to recharge all of the Communication Towers in the colony of Alpha Base H99, a robotic crystal mining colony near the galactic center of the Milky Way.
- Ruins of Atlantis – Designed to teach and reinforce introductory programming concepts such as path planning and encoder based movements.
Level Builder
Or, you can create your own competition using the Robot Virtual Worlds Level Builder and Model Importer. With an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface, the Level Builder makes it as easy to create a virtual challenge as it is to create a physical challenge out of classroom materials. The Level Builder provides a 12’x12′ square field on which to design your competition. It also provides several objects – from cans and boxes to line tracking tiles – that you can use to design challenging, unique, and fun competitions!
Model Importer
The Robot Virtual Worlds Level Builder also comes with a Model Importer that allows you to create and import your own 3D models! With the model importer, you can also modify objects to make them an unmovable object, a perilous obstacle, or a necessary checkpoint.
Step 2: Determine the rules of your competition
Regardless of whether you create your own competition or use an existing Robot Virtual World, the rules and structure of your competition will allow you to customize the experience for your class, or even for individual students. (This can also be something you discuss with your students and determine together.)
Here are a few things to consider:
- When will the competition start?
- Is this an individual competition, or can students work in teams?
- What type of documentation do you want students to turn in?
- Does the code need to be commented?
- Do the programmers need to show pseudocode?
- Do the programmers need to explain their use of variables and functions?
- When does the competition end?
- What does it take to win the competition?
Step 3: Get Ready
Once the rules are set, there are just a few more things to take care of before the competition starts:
- Start by installing Robot Virtual Worlds on all students’ machines. Visit our Download Center to get the latest version.
- If you’re using one of our Robot Virtual Worlds, such as Palm Island, Ruins of Atlantis, or Operation Reset, make sure you’ve installed that on the students’ machines as well. Visit our Download Center for the latest version of each Robot Virtual World.
- Make sure all students understand the competition rules
- Get ready to rumble and have fun!
Need a Few Ideas for Using a Competition in Your Classroom?
With the ability to use an existing Robot Virtual World or create your own challenges, the options for in-class competitions are endless. Here are a few competition ideas if you need a little help deciding what to do:
- Create a competition using the Palm Island Robot Virtual World by assigning points to the completion of certain tasks.
- Create a competition that requires students to use a loop and the light/color sensor in a line tracking competition where students need to program their robots to follow a line as fast as possible. Here’s a Teachers POV blog post about the benefits of using this type of competition in your classroom, whether it’s with physical or virtual robots.
- Robo-Slalom! Use the use the Robot Virtual Worlds Level Builder and Model Importer to create a slalom course that students must complete by programming a robot that can move along the outside of each flag. The robot’s path must prevent it from touching any flag, and allow it to cross the finish line as fast as possible.
- You can also use a game like VEX IQ Beltway to create an in-class competition.
- Here’s a Teacher POV blog post about how one teacher created a competition that challenged students to apply the basics of ROBOTC programming while also asking them to come up with unique strategies to try to score as many points as possible in a 2 minute game.