Lancashire Mathematics Centre
Lancashire Maths Week
Primary Maths
ICT
Roamer Activities
Lancashire Mathematics Centre
Primary Maths
ICT
Roamer Activities
NNS Framework Section 5 pp. 86-87; Section 6 pp. 108-109.
Introduction
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Foundation & KS1*
Taxi For Take Off – KS1 & Lower KS2
Roaming on Mars – Upper KS2
Some preparation is required prior to Maths Week.
The ideas suggested here have been taken from the Valiant
website. More cross-curricular ideas are available on:
www.valiant-technology.com
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Developed by Ann Dovey of Ellington Primary School
Initial preparation:
Make sure children are familiar with the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Write names of each day of the week on separate pieces of card. Use these
cards to help the children learn the days of the week. Seven children could line up
with a "day" each. Other children could be asked to find a particular day, or put them
in order.
Have a painting session to make the food for the story. Also paint 2
caterpillars, 1 butterfly, 2 leaves (one with an egg on) and also make a cocoon (a
tunnel made out of cardboard).
When the "food" is dry mount it on cards for use in
game. (see diagram)
Decide layout with the children. Place a start card and the days of the week
cards on the floor. (A start card is necessary otherwise you will end up with two
Sundays.) Arrange the cards until you are happy with the layout. Do not have a
distance of more than 3 Roamer steps between them otherwise space becomes a
problem.
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Make a note of the distance and direction between each "day", then write
program cards for the children to follow. Do not forget to label which "day" they are for.
(see diagram)
Have a container for the children to put the "food" and program cards in. A
medium sized cardboard box is ideal - call it the story box.
Tape days of the week to the floor. Use Roamer and your program cards to
position these accurately. Place the "food" and program cards next to the relevant
days (see diagram).
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Activity begins:
Now you are ready to read the story stopping at the appropriate moment for
each child to play their part. All the children can join in with the words...’but he
was still hungry’.
Child
Task
1
Holds up egg on leaf, and then puts it in the story box.
2
Puts caterpillars on the sides of Roamer with blu-tack.
3
Reads program card then programs to Monday, holds up "food"
card, then puts "food" and program cards in the story box.
4
Reads program card then programs to Tuesday, holds up
"food" card, then puts "food" and program cards in the story
box.
5
Reads program card then programs to Wednesday, holds up
"food" card, then puts "food" and program cards in the story
box.
6
Reads program card and then programs to Thursday, holds up
"food" card then puts "food" and program cards in the story box
7
Reads program card and then programs to Friday, holds up
"food" card then puts "food" and program cards in the story
box.
8
Reads program card and then programs to Saturday, holds up
"food" card then puts "food" and program cards in the story
box.
9
Reads program card and then programs to Sunday, holds up
leaf, then puts leaf and program card in the story box.
10
Reads program card and then programs Roamer to enter
"cocoon" wait 15 seconds before coming out the other side.
11
Takes off caterpillars and places a butterfly wing on each side
of Roamer.
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar
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Teacher's Notes
Taxi for Take-off
This has been designed as a simple activity for younger pupils.
The runway should be easy for them to follow with all angles being right
angles and the length of all the straight lines should be in exact Roamer
units i.e., 30cm.
For example, if this activity was taking place in the hall, you would need to
prepare a ‘runway’ by using tape and marking out the path on the floor.
To change the unit of turn to right angles press the following:
CM CM
[ 90 ] GO.
This unit will remain through a CM CM but will be lost if Roamer is turned
off. Therefore you may like to put a piece of sticky tape over the on-off
switch to deter children from turning it off.
……..Pupil Sheet on following page……
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Pupil's Sheet
Taxi for Take-off
¾ You are the pilot of a reconnaissance aircraft in World War ll.
¾ You have received orders to fly over the enemy airfield to
photograph their position.
¾ You must move the aircraft as quickly as possible from the
hangar to the runway for take-off.
¾ You must follow the dotted line.
Before you start press CM twice to clear the Roamer's
memory.
To go forward press
1 or another number.
1
To turn right press
To turn left press
1
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Roaming on Mars
This is adapted from an activity that was written by Greg Vogt of
NASA's education department, Johnson Space Centre, Houston.
Introduction
The year is 2035. You are a member of a Mars Robotic Exploration
Team. Two weeks ago, the NASA Pathfinder III spacecraft landed on
Mars. Telemetry (radio data) from the spacecraft has indicated all
systems on board are functioning perfectly. The mission director has
approved the first remote investigation, which will commence
tomorrow. The goal of this investigation is to look for water or ice in
the Martian soil.
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Challenge
o Your team has to prepare a route map for the micro-rover
laboratory (Roamer) which will depart the Pathfinder III, to
travel to three investigation sites, and return.
o The sites were determined by the science team to be locations
likely to have ice deposits beneath the soil surface.
o The roving laboratory (Roamer) must visit each site to collect
and store soil and ice samples.
o The science team has provided your team with a scale map
(Scale is 1cm: 10 000 cm) showing the planned route which
includes the three sites to be studied.
o It is your team's objective to plot a route for the roving
laboratory (Roamer) to follow that will permit it to visit each
site, conduct its studies, and return to Pathfinder III.
o You will write a program for the roving laboratory (Roamer)
permitting you to test the route. If your Roamer visits each site
and returns to Pathfinder III you will have successfully
completed your mission.
Good luck!
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Background Information
Mars is a small planet of about 6,800 kms in diameter. The gravity on Mars is
about 38% of that on Earth. A 70 kg person on Earth would weigh only 27 kg on
Mars.
Mars rotates on its axis every 24 hours and 37 minutes. Its axis is tilted like
Earth's, causing the planet to have seasons. Because Mars is further from the
sun that Earth and has a longer orbit, its seasons are almost twice as long as
Earth's. The temperature at the surface ranges from a cold -133 degrees Celsius
to a high of 27 degrees Celsius.
The atmosphere of Mars is very thin. The pressure is about the same that exists
on Earth at an altitude of 37,000 metres (about 4 times higher than Mount
Everest). Because of the very low pressure, about 125th that of Earth's
atmosphere, liquid water cannot exist on Mars's surface. Previous spacecraft
missions have detected ice in the Martian polar caps but none in the equatorial
regions.
One of the important questions about Mars is what happened to Mars's water.
The 1971 Mariner 9 mission to Mars photographed small channels on the Mars
surface that look very much like water-cut channels on Earth. Later spacecraft
also observed the channels. Scientists have speculated that Mars may have had a
thicker atmosphere in its distant past. If so, Mars could have had lakes and
oceans, rain and snow. Water runoff could easily have cut the channels. However,
no spacecraft has discovered any of water ice being present in these locations.
One of the objectives of the real Pathfinder III mission in 2003 was to try to
find water/ice on Mars and analyse any gas that might be frozen inside it. The
gas would tell scientists what Mars's atmosphere was once like.
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Pupil Sheet
Roaming on Mars
Start/
Finish
Site
3
300 cm
Site
1
Site
2
The route is based around a square. This is a scale drawing.
1 Roamer Unit = 30cm.