Minecraft+&+Minecraft+Edu

__** Learning Environment Design Project: Minecraft & Minecraft Edu **__

** Activity Description: **
The purpose of this activity is to foster social studies concepts of community through creating virtual communities in Minecraft (or Minecraft EDU). It also is written to encourage collaboration among students while encouraging self-reflection and real world application of content knowledge.

** Description of Learners: **

 * // Context: Public Elementary School //
 * // Age Group: 4th – 5th graders //

** Learning Objectives: **

 * SWBAT actively collaborate with peers to create an online community on Minecraft that contains a minimum of five community elements discussed in class.
 * SBWAT compare and contrast elements of communities between their project and three of their peers’ communities.

** Principles of Learning: **

 * __ Self-Knowledge Principle: __ Students are learning about themselves, their skills, and reflecting on their place in the community
 * __ Practice Principle: __ Students are constantly creating, designing, and developing new buildings and constructs within their virtual communities
 * __ Multiple Routes Principle: __ Students are allowed flexibility and creativity while planning and executing their communities; since they are working collaboratively they can utilize everyone’s assets
 * __ Insider Principle: __ Students are able to be the “insider”, “teacher”, and “producer” while customizing their learning experience

** Materials Needed: **

 * “On the Town: A Community Adventure” by Judith Caseley
 * Anchor chart & markers
 * Minecraft/Minecraft EDU
 * Computers
 * Blank Venn diagram sheets ([])

** Lesson Plan: **
// **Before the lesson, it is useful to do an informal poll of students to see their level of understanding/competence with Minecraft. This will help later with sorting students into different groups. //


 * 1) The teacher will begin the lesson with gathering their students to the front of the classroom. He/she will begin by reading “On the Town: A Community Adventure” by Judith Caseley.


 * 1) After the reading, the teacher will ask students to Think-Pair-Share (TPS) with their peers about the following question: “What places and people are key to building a successful community?”


 * 1) Once the students have had adequate time to discuss, the teacher will either ask for volunteers or select students to share their ideas. He/she will record the ideas provided on an anchor chart that is visible to all students in the room. If necessary, he/she can attempt to elicit further information or ideas by referring to the aforementioned text.


 * 1) Next, the teacher will explicitly introduce the learning objectives to the students. From there, he/she will explain the following process:


 * Students will be separated into groups of five - preferably with students at assorted levels of abilities previously using Minecraft. Each group of five will be creating their own communities within Minecraft, utilizing the components addressed from the anchor chart (e.g., school, police station, grocery store, streets, houses, etc). This project will be longitudinal in manner, because the students will need adequate amount of time to construct. It is important to stress to the students they will need to collaborate with their peers – modeling how to divvy up tasks may be required, depending on the group of students the teacher has.
 * Once the students have had the pre-determined amount of time to work on their communities, set aside an afternoon for students to explore their peers’ worlds. This will require each group of students to share the IP address and name of their “world” (i.e., community). While exploring each group’s community, have students write compare and contrast the community elements they see within their projects as well as their peers’.

** Additional Resources: **
For those apprehensive about Minecraft, there are myriad tutorials available for use by teachers and students alike:


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