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Hi, my name is Jason McKenna. Welcome back to the VEX Classroom, where today we're talking about VEX GO, and specifically why VEX GO. So if you have VEX GO and you're really wondering what are the key value propositions of it, or you're interested in VEX GO, this video is going to talk about what makes VEX GO such a great addition to your STEM continuum or your STEM curriculum.

At VEX, we're very firm believers in the idea of STEM starting early. We want to expose young students to STEM learning. It's really important that we do that for a couple of reasons. Reason number one, research is very clear that students sometimes as young as seven years old form a perception about their ability to do certain STEM tasks or to learn subjects like science and math. Unfortunately, if students form a negative opinion about their proficiency in those subjects, it's very difficult to change them. So it's great to have a middle school STEM implementation using a product like VEX IQ, that's fantastic. But what the research tells us is that it's very important to be able to reach those young students again before they form that negative perception.

What VEX GO does is it allows very young students to have a positive interpretation of STEM, to feel like they can do STEM, and to really put them on a positive path moving forward if they want to learn more with STEM, or even adventures they could order, perhaps even join a STEM career. Now, VEX GO is able to do that for a couple of different reasons. First of all, it has a very low barrier of entry. This code-based robot in front of me takes students about 10 minutes to build. If students are working in pairs, it'll take them even less time to build that. That's because, first of all, how we designed the robot, we've made it very easy to build. Second of all, with the storage of the kits, the color coding of the parts of the kit, as you see in the parts posted right here, it makes it very easy for students to identify and find the pieces and to build the robot, and also take the robot apart.

After you build a robot with VEXcode GO, it's very easy for you to actually code your robot. So in about 10 to 15 minutes, you can actually have a functioning, built, moving robot coded by VEXcode GO. We know research also tells us that having that very quick cycle of then that immediate feedback of having that success, that is also very engaging for students. It's also very motivating for students. So having that very immediate success is important.

Secondly, not only does it have that low barrier of entry, but it also has wide walls. So you can see on here, I have my unpowered supercar, I have my robot arm. There are frogs that you can build with the VEX GO kit. There are different contraptions you can build to create art projects. There's all different types of things that you can do with VEX GO. You can check all those builds out at builds.vex.com. You can see all the many different things that you can do. So no matter what interest your students may have, they can find something to do with VEX GO. And of course, there are many different open-ended builds that they can do. We have VEX activities, VEX GO activities that go into some of those open-ended things. But the students can just get the kit, open it up, and start building right away. So it has wide walls, has many different things that you can do to fit your students at their interest level to be able to do and have fun.

But VEX GO also has a high ceiling, as you see with this arm right here as an example. There are pretty complex builds that you can do with it. So you don't have to worry about after the students build one, two, or three robots, they get bored. VEX GO really integrates all the STEM subjects together. We have curriculum around math and science, and obviously the technology and the engineering of the building and coding. There's just so much that your students can do.

So again, this idea of STEM starts early. Being able to reach students before they form that negative perception about their abilities in STEM is crucial. We are able to do that with VEX GO because VEX GO is a very low barrier of entry. It does have wide walls, with all these different activities you can do, but it also has a very high ceiling. You'll never have to worry about your students getting bored with VEX GO.

The other thing that research tells us, the other reason why it's so important to start STEM early, is because we know these STEM skills don't just enhance students' abilities in science and math. They enhance their abilities in all subjects. So getting students this hands-on build at a very young age, the spatial reasoning that they build, and the way that it's able to foster executive function within your students, these things are going to carry over to all subjects. STEM skills don't just form the foundation of STEM, but they form the foundation for all the subjects that students have in school. Whether that's reading, obviously math, science, whatever it is, exposing students to spatial reasoning, giving these hands-on learning opportunities, having them build, and fostering executive function, all work as an interconnected web that supports both school readiness and the foundation of learning for our students.

Giving students these hands-on, minds-on activities that do all the things we talked about previously is a great way not just to introduce your students to STEM, but to lay a firm foundation for all the learning that's going to happen in the subsequent school years. That's why here at VEX, we feel that it's so important to start STEM early, and that's why it's so important to start with VEX GO.

Finally, all the things that we build into VEX GO make it easy for you to implement. Because students can go ahead and build this robot in 10 minutes or less, you don't have to worry about buying a kit for each of your individual students. Instead, you can buy a classroom bundle and use that for multiple classes. We have actually brought the price point down for you to introduce STEM to more elementary students. We have a study at research.vex.com that walks through all of this, showing you not only how one teacher was able to use a classroom bundle to reach over a hundred students, but also how those students saw their attitude towards STEM improve in third, fourth, and fifth grade. We'll link that study below this video. Go ahead and check that out. It validates what we've talked about, the importance of starting STEM early with VEX GO, and why VEX GO is such a great addition to your STEM continuum.

Obviously, as students progress and get older, you can go from VEX GO to VEX 123 to VEX IQ. It fits into our STEM continuum very well, and they can progress to VEX EXP from there, but you're able to give students that STEM curriculum that builds concepts from year to year. You can go ahead and start them with VEX GO.

Thank you for watching the video. Really appreciate your time. Look forward to seeing you again in our next video.

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