A Change of Pace

I originally started this Blog to provide information on my experimental use of Minecraft in my classroom.  I wanted to provide anyone with interest some ideas and a blueprint of activities, since I could not find much in my own research.  But, my focus has changed.

I want to provide ideas and activities for any integration of technology.  Rather than start a new blog, I am changing my topic.  This will truly live up to the name Epic Tech Quest, as I am constantly looking for new ways to integrate and new things to share with others.  There is so much more that we do in our class and so much more we can learn.  I want that to be available to anyone who wants to know.

For instance, today, we are using the Green Screen app DoInk to create trailer's for personal narratives.  Rather than reading our stories to each other, we are creating short and thrilling clips that are designed to 'hook' the reader.  This also forces the students to summarize their stories without giving away the ending.

Stay tuned, more to come.

Burn it Down!

I have not been able to post about Mindcraft in a while because of some major changes in my classroom.  In the past weeks, we have gained the glorious opportunity to be 1:1 with Chromebooks and received student Google Accounts.  As a result, we have been a little preoccupied with all of that and neglected Mindcraft!

This week, we got the opportunity to continue our experience.  The kids have been learning about Ecosystems.  They have each chosen one to "specialize" in and have written an informative report and a personal narrative involving their ecosystem of choice.  Our learning focus is shifting from knowing about the ecosystem to protecting it.  One major factor I wanted my kids to understand is that we must protect the environment now, not later, and not in the next generation.

The plan was to create a new world in Survival Mode and burn down the forest.  If you are not familiar, Survival Mode is where the player starts out with nothing and must use the resources around (and under) them to craft objects and survive.  For our purposes, we turned off the mobs of zombies since that is not really school appropriate.

The students had to chop down trees in order to gain a pickaxe, then mine until they came across flint and iron to create a tool called "flint and steel".  I'm sure you can imagine what that does.  The next step was to find a forest and burn it down to nothing.  They also were instructed to destroy all the grass and flowers in that area.  The final step was to rebuild it.

What the students saw was how long it took to regrow the forest to its original status.  Destroying it versus rebuilding it.  Now they are looking into ways that their ecosystem is under attack and writing persuasive letters to the EPA imploring them to help us protect that ecosystem.

Teaching from the bleachers

Recently, I found myself sharing my "Mindcraft" experience to 25 very interested educators.  As I was talking about my ups and downs, successes and failures I came to an observation I had made earlier in the week.  It occurred to me that I am teaching from the bleachers.  I was a mere observer of the students performing in the classroom.  This could easily be taken the wrong way.  If my administrators heard, they would be having walk-throughs a every day or even every hour.

When I say "teaching from the bleachers", you might have visions of students at their seats filling in meaningless worksheets while I vigorously grade a pile of equally meaningless worksheets.  This is not the case.

My ultimate goal for my students is to create independent learners.  Students who can be given a task and accomplish it.  They don't need someone to point them in the right direction.  They have the skills, tools, and resources to complete a task and do it with fidelity.

I have taught them how to use the technology to their advantage effectively and safely.  Using search engines designed for their age, tools allowing them to collaborate with other students, they are able to problem solve and conquer.

I get to view all of this from afar getting authentic assessments of their growth.  I am no longer the focus of their learning.  I am merely a facilitator.  I bring the problems, they bring the solutions.  I give them a task and sit back to watch the magic happen.  In reality, I am able to pull students for individual help and focus on missing or lagging skills.  This is a result of Mindcraft.  My kids' motivation is strong enough to challenge them to do it all themselves.  They don't need or want me to show them the way.  They are in charge of their learning.

Venturing into ELA

Our current ELA unit focuses on healthy foods and good nutrition.  How can I incorporate Minecraft with that?  I decided that we do some research into what food items in Minecraft restore the most health and then have the kids build a garden that will allow them to produce those food items.

I found some wikis that contained this information specifically for Minecraft PE, through together a Custom Search Engine and let the kids begin researching.  Their intention was to figure out the best way to use a garden that 12x12 (I don't know why everything ends up being 12x12), not forgetting to make space for water!  The first lovely issue we ran into was the content filter for our district.  These sites were considered a "discussion board", thus they are blocked.

One student had the thought that we could download a Minecraft Crafting App and still find the information we needed.  I had him find one on Google Play, made sure it was safe (and free), then we worked together to download the app.  Inadvertently, the kids learned how to navigate Google Play and download an app.  This brought up conversations about permissions that Apps are granted by the user.

Once they had the App, they were off and rolling.  Using a graphic organizer to collect information and compare the various food types, then planning the locations of each block in their garden using a Google Sheet.  All of this would be simply an excuse to play Minecraft, except that they had an important writing piece to go with it.  They have to first discuss what "Good nutrition" is and then compare and contrast some of the food items that are available to them.  Finally, they must relate this to the real world and discuss how eating healthy is important for your overall health.

For this activity, we were able to incorporate many different skills.  The kids had to do research, cite their information, plan and organize the solution to a problem, and collaborate with others to accomplish a common goal.  Due to the always inevitable technology issues, we also had a chance to learn about digital privacy and how app stores work.

We are still in the process of completing this project, but pictures and descriptions will be in the next post!  I also recently received a document camera, so I hope to be able to post a video tour of one of these projects soon!

How many blocks for a cube home?

I have not been able to post any updates in awhile do to the hustle and bustle of the school year, sickness, and an injury that affected my typing skills...

The kids were (as usual) given objectives and a set of skills that they would need.  On this day, they had to figure out how many blocks were needed to create the basic structure of their house (just the outer layer of the cube).  We discussed what it meant to develop their own strategies and some of the students already claimed to know how many blocks were needed.  I prompted them to be sure and explain to their partner HOW they came to that conclusion.

This particular problem is not a grade level skill.  It requires multiple steps and reasoning that I would consider to be advanced.  After thoroughly discussing the task and what skills were needed, I set them free.

Within about 10 minutes, I had my first group that claimed to have solved the mystery.  "144 blocks".  First I asked them to explain how they came to that conclusion.  "We multiplied."  "What did you multiply?"  "The numbers, duh."  I was a bit surprised because our regular math curriculum requires daily written explanations of how the student solved a problem.  We had discussions on a regular basis where we examined good examples and poor examples.  Clearly, we needed more work on this skill.  Group after group came with numbers that were un-reasonable.  After about half the groups had tried more than once, I decided that this was not going quite the way I planned.  I stopped everyone and we came back together.  Using our projector, I showed the class what the cube-house looked like, then showed them what just the corners looked like.

 When asked how many blocks were used to build just this portion, the kids were able to make some quick calculations and come up with much more reasonable numbers: 100, 130, 150.  Once they realized that the corners could mistakenly be counted twice, the light bulbs went off.  I had them complete the rest of the original problem.  The kids were able to see what was missing on each side of the cube-home, 6 10 by 10 walls.

 After this revelation, the kids were getting much closer to solving the problem at hand.

What did I learn from this?  That even though the motivation was there, they still struggled with a multiple step problem.  This is something that we have noticed across the curriculum with all of our students.  Once they were given some scaffolding and a starting point, they were able to make their way through.  I am a bit defeated, but we will carry on!

Problem Solving

This week, the kids created their "homes", a 12 by 12 by 12 block structure.  They had to decide how many floors they could put in their house and then build them.

Objectives:
Create a house that is 12 blocks tall, 12 blocks wide, and 12 blocks deep.
Use a list to figure out what the maximum number of levels you can have in your home.
Use problem solving skills (compromise) to resolve any issues or disagreements

I observed each group from across the room, so as to not disturb their conversations as they were happening nor have any proximity related influence on their discussions.  The first thing I heard was, "How do we get in?" or "How do we get out?"  Many of the kids either didn't know about doors, or didn't think to put one in.  Easily solved by clearing out two blocks and placing the door in the gap.

Next up, "I can't see anything?".  Most kids threw up some torches and moved on, but others brought about more clever ways.  Some installed windows, some ripped off their roof and replaced it with glass blocks, other with goldstone.  The kids worked together and had to first decide their options, then make the best decision that they could.  These are students that are not paired up with students that they would normally work with and typically don't have lengthy discussions that stay on topic, they are after all, 8 year olds.  What is interesting about these discussions is that the students really do debate which option to work with.  There is a method to their persuasion and the best part is that their partner's rebuttals are just as well constructed.

These students are collaborating on a project and I am amazed at how well they are doing it.  I have heard no arguments, no fits of sadness or frustration, just good clean focused fun.  They are working together and actually enjoying it.  I have not noticed anyone sitting on the sidelines doing nothing.  There have not been any bossy players telling others what to do.  These are events that are typical in group work, but non-existent in Mindcraft (my name for this time in our class).  My students are truly cooperating with each other and accomplishing tasks in peace.  To me, this is a major benefit of using Minecraft.  My students are being creative, planning, and collaborating on a project together.  The way that I have infused our math curriculum into this may not be the best, but it will come with time and practice on my end.  In the meantime, my kids are learning to work seamlessly together and I can focus on working with them, not putting out fires.

This is one of the more complex examples that a student created.    With the size of the houses, the students had to realize that they could only create 3 floors and have 2 extra block heights to work with.He chose to make the top floor and the first floor taller than the middle floor.  You can see how he divided the levels on the first picture.

It continues

This week, the kids have started a new activity that has a little more freedom and a little more realism to it.  I instructed them to build a house with their partner that is 12 x 12 x 12.  They can use any block type that they'd like and once the basic structure is made, they can fill it and decorate how they wish.  This morning, when they walked in I posted the question "How many block are needed to create your house?" on the board and just left it up.  As I was greeting the kids coming in, I could hear students discussing it.  Several of them were trying to figure it out in there head.  My hope is that they start to develop a strategy for solving this on their own.  Some might add 12 for each column, some might try to multiply.  I just want them to explore the problem in their head so that when we do discuss it, they have some ideas.

These are third graders who are currently learning about adding 2-digit numbers.  They do not know how to multiply and they have no experience with volume, perimeter, or area (I am aware of some issues that will be present when discussing the corners and how they relate to overall area and perimeter, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there).  However, using Minecraft, they are beginning to develop these ideas and will later be able to connect their own strategies with standard formulas.