Our 4th grade students had to create a solution that would reduce the impact of geohazards (earthquake, landslide, tsunami, and volcanic eruption).
Minecraft in Education
Kids with autism build life skills in Minecraft (CNET News)
Minecraft in Education: 5th Grade Volume Project (PBL)
In this project students took on the role of architects from an architecture firm. Their objective was to design a home for Mr. Python and his family. Mr. Python provided a few specifications for the design:
- Home must have a footprint of 150 to 250 square meters (The footprint is the area of the home site, defined by the perimeter of the building plan.)
- At least 3 bedrooms (One master bedroom, one for the daughter and one for the son)
- Wants lot of natural sunlight coming into the home
- Multi-story home (home that has multiple of floors)
- Home must be a composite rectangular prism, made up of at least three or more of these rectangular prisms that are all different sizes (Composite rectangular prism: composed of two or more non-overlapping right rectangular prisms)
- Would like to know the volume of each of the non-overlapping rectangular prisms and also the total volume of the home
Here is the video of Mr. Python asking students to design a home for his family.
Prior to the final project students watched the following intro video to volume that contains a quick review on perimeter and area, as well as a short activity where students find the volume of a rectangular prism using layers.
Ultimately students designed a home for Mr. Python with his specifications in mind. The images below are from Andrew in Ms. Godek’s class. He created a beautiful modern home that had a volume of 5254 blocks cubed. Please visit his blog post to see more images and how he found the volume of his home.
The Eduplex v2.0 (Minecraft EdTech Training Center)
Links to Minecraft projects:
- Eduplex v1.0
- Entrepreneur Math Project (Project-Based Learning)
- Calculating Speed with Minecraft
- Minecraft Community Project: Civic Competence
- Electric Circuit Museum
- Volcano Project
Music by Kevin MacLeod (“Vivacity”)
Click on this link to go to the Eduplex V1.0 video.
Entrepreneur Math Project (Project-Based Learning)
Google Presentation
Google Spreadsheet
Minecraft Block Pricing Guide
“Minecraft in the Classroom” Book – Unboxing
Calculating Speed with Minecraft
6th Grade Common Core Math Standard: Ratio & Proportional Relationships, A.3.B:
“Solve unit rate problems including those involving unit pricing and constant speed. For example, if it took 7 hours to mow 4 lawns, then at that rate, how many lawns could be mowed in 35 hours? At what rate were lawns being mowed?”
5th Grade Common Core Math Standard: Numbers & Operations in Base Ten, B.7:
“Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to hundredths, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used.”
Interview with Colin Gallagher on Minecraft Minechat (Episode 26)
Minecraft Boundaries & Volcanoes Project
This Volcano/Boundaries project is part of a 4th grade science unit based on the Next Generation Science Standard 4-ESS2-2.
Goal:
Create a continental boundaries diagram and a volcano diagram, and ultimately record yourself explaining your creations.
DAVIDLEEEDTECH.ORG
Electric Circuit Museum Project (Minecraft in Education)
This Electric Circuit museum project is part of a 4th grade science unit based on the Energy standards of the Next Generation Science Standards 4-PS3-2 and 4-PS3-4.
Driving question
Could you, as the curator of a museum, create a 3D digital exhibit about electric circuits for students to visit online?