EDTECH with MISTERA

GAME-Based Learning

As an advocate of game based learning, Shane utilizes games like MinecraftEdu, Kerbal Space Program Edu, and Bloxels in his classroom by leveraging game mechanics to apply concepts from across all subject areas. Both playing and creating games provide a fantastic learning experience for students that provides true integration.

When students are:
- creating characters, settings, and conflict, they are applying language arts skills.
- calculating the probability of winning, losing, balance, or scoring, they are applying mathematics skills.
- making connections to experiences or events, they are applying social studies skills.
- developing a game, they are applying engineering design process skills.
- collaborating, problem solving and utilizing computational thinking skills, they are college and career ready.

Understanding the value of GBL as an educational tool, Shane assists teachers from around the globe with both technical and pedagogical support as they bring it into their own classes.

Minecraft: Digital Storytelling

Description:

In this project, we worked on recreating popular stories within Minecraft to determine the message, lesson, or moral. After watching YouTube videos and reading different versions of the stories, students set out to create a digital version from a student perspective. Through the use of key details in the text students were able to provide the users a new experience with the game. Students used Google Docs to collaborate with one another throughout the project.

Details:

Interact and Collaborate in groups of 3-5 students
Locate and organize information from several resources
Identify elements of a story including characters, setting, conflict, and resolution
Create the story setting and details with a digital multi-player world
Place and adjust Custom NPCS as the characters in the story
Express creativity when designing custom skins for the story characters
Use command blocks and basic coding to tell the story as players walk along the path

Media:

Minecraft: Design a Minecraft Zoo

Description:

In this project, students were given a budget of $1,000,000 to purchase animals, hire employees, design enclosures, and create a zoo in Minecraft. The project stemmed from a focus on area and perimeter but quickly became much more. Students were balancing budgets, completing cost analysis, and making decisions that would directly impact the bottom line. In the end, they used an executive summary of the project to help me decide which zoo would get built. Students used Google Docs to collaborate with one another throughout the project.

Details:

Interact and Collaborate in groups of 3-5 students
Custom map that provided each group with a different biome to build in
Demonstrate understanding of the concepts of area and perimeter
Utilize web tools to research and organize information about biomes and animal
Use of tools for measurement within Minecraft
Place and adjust Custom NPCS as the employees of the zoo
Use problem solving skills to plan the infrastructure of the zoo grounds

Media:

Minecraft: Roller Coaster Design

Description:

In this project, students worked in groups to run experiments that focused on the physics of minecarts in Minecraft. Engaging discussions about independent, dependent, and control variables lead to some very interesting experiment designs. By running simulations within Minecraft, students were able to determine the relationship between variables such as height vs. distance, powered rails vs. slope, and turns vs. momentum. This information was then utilized to create and demonstrate the learning in the form of a custom themed roller coaster. Students used Google Docs to collaborate with one another throughout the project.

Details:

Interact and Collaborate in groups of 3-5 students
Utilize aspects of the Scientific Process during the experiments
Process data collected through experimentation and report results
Use the Engineering Design Process to evaluate the validity of the data
Plan and manage the project to complete the roller coaster
Apply knowledge of minecarts to generate creative uses in the design

Media:

Minecraft: The Mall / Industry

Description:

In this project, students learned about the flow of an industry from raw materials to final product. Each group was tasked to find a product within Minecraft that required a minimum of three raw materials to produce. They then had to map out the relationship of these materials as they were used in the creation of the final product. Once the plan was created, they worked on creating the industry within the virtual world of Minecraft. Students used Google Docs to collaborate with one another throughout the project.

Details:

Interact and Collaborate in groups of 3-5 students
Apply knowledge of the crafting system to create a process of production
Research best practices for gathering raw materials used in the process
Use critical thinking and problem solving skills to develop a system to produce large quantities of items
Gain a deeper understanding of industry from start to finish
Reinforce concepts of sustainable and finite when used in relation to production of a product
Evaluate the process, determine, and justify a fair market value for the cost of the final products

Media:

Minecraft: School Grounds Map

Description:

This was the first project that we completed with Minecraft at our school. At first it was a pilot project to see how the students would react to Minecraft at school. Watching students work on this project lead to some amazing discoveries. Students were able to be self-directed members of a bigger team. Even though the project was to recreate our campus, smaller groups would take on different aspects of the bigger project. Groups would go work on the parking lot or the cafeteria and yet still keep in mind the project goals. The success of this project definitely left me with a desire to take this even further!

Details:

Collaborative building of students in grades 3-6
The focus was on recreating a scale model of our school campus

Media:

Google Sites

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