Quote:
Originally Posted by sgeckler
There are quite a few detailed comments in support of VEX IQ for middle school curriculum. What about for elementary after-school programs? It seems like the capability of the VEX IQ system is a little overpowering for elem ed after school. Thoughts?
Sam
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Echoing Zac above me, the best thing about VEX IQ is the extraordinary flexibility (the second best thing is affordability).
I invested in twelve kits to use for day camp, extracurricular classes, and competition teams for grades K-8, but since we've had them on hand they get used constantly. We had them out at Maker Faire Detroit and were overrun with kids nearly every open hour of the faire (nice weather helped), the high school kids use them for prototyping and demonstrating understanding of concepts, the loose pieces are fun for all ages for free building (especially if you have a competition field to use a play & build table).
As far as the original purpose, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive across all age groups. The median age of VEX IQ kids in my summer camps was 8 (entering 3rd grade), and I expect the median age for fall classes/teams will be 9-10 (the fall median is a bit older as the middle school students that didn't need camp as child care in the summer join back up for competition season).
Edited to add: This is only tangentially related to the original topic, but as I was looking at the registration data for median age I noticed that only 12% of the kids in my LEGO programs are girls, whereas 44% of the kids in my VEX IQ programs are girls. Huh. I wonder why the difference?