September was a lively month in the PD+ Community! We’ve curated a selection of captivating Community posts to spotlight for you here, so you can be sure you didn’t miss out on any discussions you can use to inspire your robotics teaching practice!

Back to School with VEX!

With back-to-school season in full swing, many Community members have been talking about incorporating VEX into their classroom and school routines. The ‘Pbis’ post describes a fabulous way to work enthusiasm for robotics and coding into dismissal routines, adding motivation for students to stick to their school’s expectations at the time of day when that is most challenging!

This VEX GO post also provides some fun ways to incorporate VEX GO into establishing everyday classroom practices, including adapting the GO Create a Course Activity to include locations specific to your school or classroom.

There was also a beginning-of-the-year buzz In the VEX 123 category. This thread about ways to adapt classic math centers to include coding with 123 provides practical tips about converting materials for use with the 123 Field and led to a discussion about reaching students at their individual math and coding levels through differentiation. 

Another popular and practical 123 post gives tips for using a .png file on an interactive whiteboard, which could be useful for teaching with any VEX platform.

For those of you getting your school year started with CTE, these two posts should prove helpful. The Cartesian Coordinate System and the V5 Workcell Video and Trouble with Mastering Values? may be just what you need.

Troubleshooting Common IQ and EXP Issues

This post about troubleshooting turns with IQ robots contains useful information to help understand the reasons why an IQ robot may not be turning as expected.

Another very useful troubleshooting thread can be found in the EXP category this month. View this post to understand the importance of correctly configuring and using the Inertial Sensor when coding an EXP robot. 

Differentiation for Special Education Students

This fantastic question in the V5 category kicked off an inspiring thread about differentiation for special education with V5: “How can I adapt the class in a way that still allows for project based learning, yet is differentiated enough that they don’t feel overwhelmed?” This conversation is most definitely essential and ongoing – give it a read, and contribute ideas if you have them!

Making Circumference Visible with VEX IQ

In the VEX IQ category, a conversation about the VEX IQ Wheel Turns Activity got some traction. The activity helps students understand circumference using IQ Wheels and a ruler. This conversation evolved into a more general conversation about VEX resources for teaching 6th grade math, and would be a great one for middle school math or STEM teachers to check out.

Competition Conversations

With regards to VRC, a reminder about video resources for VRC in the PD+ Video Library sparked one teacher to share how he uses the videos in his Advanced Robotics class. And, for anyone with younger students just starting out in VIQRC, this post about getting started with the Full Volume competition using the IQ Clawbot might be just the thing to help your students get their feet wet in competition robotics without being overwhelmed.

If you visit any of these posts, be sure to add your own thoughts and ideas to them! Your contributions help our Community to thrive. And if you want to dive deeper into any of the above topics, or anything you’ve recently read about in the PD+ Community, sign up for a 1-on-1 Session with a VEX Expert!