YOUNG ROAMER 3

The last two issues of "GO" have contained articles adapted from the booklet on Big Trak, "Making Tracks", by Margaret Harris and Margaret Williams, advisory teachers in Devon. This final article suggests some more activities using Roamer.

• Safari Game For this game you will need 12 pictures of wild animals and two spinners.

  Arrange the 12 animal cards around Roamer as shown below. Make sure that Roamer is pointing exactly at one of the animals. Program the Roamer to turn in the direction and the angle predicted by spinning the two spinners.

  For example, if a child spins the Roamer should be programmed to face the rhinocerous.

  You could program Roamer to make a noise. If the move is made successfully,the noise indicates that the animal has been photographed and can be removed from the game.

• The Two Spinner Roamer Game For this game you will need two spinners. Spin both to obtain a Roamer instruction. (You will need to spin the number spinner twice for the music key). Repeat this process a number of times to obtain a program for the Roamer:

  e.g.
  The Roamer should be placed in a starting position and the children estimate where it will end its journey. As children become more adept at estimating, the programs can be made longer.



• Roamer and the Treasure Place a 'Chest full of treasure' and the Roamer some distance apart. The children take it in turns to program the Roamer to move towards the treasure trove. Ten key presses are allowed, with "GO" counting as one. Each arrival at the treasure allows the child to take an item from the chest. Whoever collects the most items wins.

  To make the game more difficult, place obstacles between the Roamer and the treasure.

• The Village Make a village on the classroom floor or draw a map of one on large sheets of paper. Make workcards of journeys for children to take.
  For example:
  - Call at Thatch Cottage to see the Farmer family.
  - Send Roamer from Crooked House to the school (stopping at the zebra crossing to allow the children to cross).
  - Go to the village shop, buy some bread from Mrs. Bun and send Roamer to feed the ducks.
  Let the children make up their own journeys.
  Make the village different shapes, like squares and rectangles.

• Journey Into Space Create a space map in the classroom. Make work cards that start with simple activities and progress to more difficult ones.
  For example:
  - Take Roamer from earth to a satellite.
  Send Roamer to the space station as fast as you can to repair the station. Return to earth.
  - Send Roamer to the refuelling station. Program it to stay there for eight seconds while it fills up with fuel. Go to the moon and return to earth base.

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