Helen Smith, Primary ICT Adviser

Did you know that you can make a Roamer move, flash lights, turn a motor or play music - or do all of these things - when you clap your hands?

Introducing Roamer Control
If Roamer Control is new to you, begin here with a short overview.

Case Studies
To see what children can achieve, we suggest you look at Liz Roberts' Introducing Roamer Control to Year 3 or Santa's Heli-sleigh by Pam Marsh. These short articles show how teachers approached some of the organisational issues. Come back to the programming examples later!

The first steps
It's most important to get to know the simple steps in controlling the Roamer before you plan work for your class. Print the Sensing and Control sheets, and keep them handy for your own reference.

Controlling Models
To see the type of model you can control using the Roamer, look at the Helicopter building sheet. Our Robolab pages also have building sheets for standing models which can be adapted for the Roamer.

Activity Cards from Sheldwich Primary School are designed for pupils to use, after the teacher has explained the task to the class. They offer a simple explanation of sensing and control, with examples and challenges to try.

Planning a project
Pauline Whitehouse's account of her Year 4 project gives many ideas for developing these starting points into a project spanning several weeks. There are six progressively structured lessons, with illustrations of children's work. To sample the cross-curricular opportunities, read how June Cooke developed a Literacy context for Roamer Control with her Year 5 class.