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ROBOFESTA-UK

RoboFesta-UK is the UK member of an international movement established to encourage children and youth to engage with science, technology, engineering and mathematics through a wide variety of robotics activities. RoboFesta-UK is administered by the Open University. Members of OU staff sit on the international RoboFesta Committee, lead its organising committee in the UK, maintain its websites and provide administrative support.

Aims

• To develop a community of best practice in the field of educational and challenge robotics.
• To develop and promote tried and tested educational robotics activities with training materials and curriculum linked teaching resources for a wide variety of settings and time-scales.
• To promote and support established and new robotics clubs and initiatives throughout the UK.
• To develop and promote low-cost and Internet-based robotics activities.
• To develop the infrastructure required to host a European Robot Games Festival culminating in a wide range of events across the UK and mainland Europe in 2004.
• To develop close links with, and foster co-operation between, the many established robot challenges and national networks having an interest in educational robotics.
• To support family learning events.
• To support widening participation and community outreach initiatives in Higher Education.
• To provide opportunities for children and youth to participate in international events that mix robotics with cultural exchange activities.

Past and present RoboFesta-UK activities include a RoboFesta/BBC Blue Peter “Design a Really Useful Robot” competition that attracted over 32,000 entries, UK representation at the 2001 RoboFesta International Robot Games Festival in Japan, organisation of RoboFesta-MK 2002 in Milton Keynes, participation in Family Robot Days in Oxford and Merseyside, and close collaboration with BBC TechnoGames in a NESTA-funded family learning initiative involving robotics classes and activities in technology colleges across the UK in 2003.

In future, most RoboFesta events will be locally organised, using robotics activities, training materials and educational resources developed by RoboFesta-UK. If you are interested in supporting or organising a local event, e-mail robofesta@open.ac.uk for information on available resources and useful contacts in your area. You may use a local RoboFesta designation (e.g. RoboFesta-Leeds) to promote an event, provided you inform us about it. We will do our best to promote your event via our newsletter, websites and contacts