Minecraft Mission to Mars

Minecraft Mission to Mars

 

I’m so excited!  I literally bounced into one of my co-teacher’s rooms after school last week, waving around my computer and shouting, “Look at this!  Sooo cool!  The kids are going to FREAK!” I’ve only been at this school for two terms, but my new School Squad know me well enough to smile indulgently when I show this much enthusiasm.

I’d been looking for a fun, challenging and engaging collaborative Minecraft challenge that would stretch my students and be a good feature for our STEM week event.  I found it!  It’s available on the Minecraft Education Edition website and is called Mission to Mars, created by the talented Chris Fuge (Twitter,  website) (I hope you create more worlds and lessons soon!)  It looked awesome.  Students tour a NASA facility, learning how to survive and thrive on Mars, with lots of NPC scientists providing external links to more kid-friendly research.  Then, and this is where it gets AWESOME, you fill a single, solitary chest with just 27 items before blasting off in a rocket ship to Mars.  There, you have to build a colony, survive radiation, accidents and sickness, find water, create a facility and grow enough food to survive.

My School Squad are fantastic, but they are yet to become Minecraft enthusiasts (I’m already straining their brains with Seesaw!)  So, there was only one thing to do. I had to call in the big guns to help me to experiment with this world – my two personal children (as opposed to my many school children!)

So began a wonderful afternoon of research, debating, arguing, crossing out and filling in of lists before we launched off to Mars and built our colony.  My 12 year old son is the true building whizz, with my daughter having a flair for organisation, and I’m pretty good at planting trees and harvesting wheat. (I’m far better at teaching with Minecraft than I am at using Minecraft, but I get by).  We were all pretty happy with the results, and I was able to get a lot of tips to pass on to my less experienced students.

Here are our top tips for successful Mars colonisation:

  • Teamwork – definitely have groups of at least 3 students, stretching to 5 quite comfortably.
  • Research which tree types grow best in an enclosed area, and how far apart to plant them.
  • Crops need water to grow – have a couple of plans for how to get water on Mars.
  • Have students assign roles – this is more efficient than everyone going off and doing their own thing.
  • Eat regularly – all of that building and exploring will make your hunger grow quickly.

Here are a few screenshots of our colony.

This module arrives with you on Mars – we added multiple furnaces to speed up glass production.
Crops need water – how will you ensure you have enough?
We put animals and trees into the same greenhouse. Our trees are planted too close together – some didn’t grow.
Our partially built colony. Mars is desolate and lacking in many resources. Pack carefully!

Our conclusion?  This activity is as awesome as it looked on the website!  Seriously, I can’t wait until I get back from the July holidays (two weeks in winter in Australia) and get stuck into my Minecraft sessions.  I’ll have six weeks of 110 minutes with my group of 25 students, which should be just about perfect.

I’ve adapted the already fantastic student worksheet provided (the original was designed for printing – I’ve adapted it for OneNote use). You can find the OneNote version here along with my other resources created to go with previous blog posts.  Full credit to Chris Fuge  – I’ve just added in my trademark tables and a place to insert photos.  I’ll also have students document the entire journey by using the Minecraft Portfolio and Camera objects (meaning my students get to select only 25 objects!)

Want to know what our final Mission to Mars pack list was?  Sorry – not telling!  You’ll have to download the world from the Minecraft Education and try it out yourself.

Minecraft Lunch Club!

Minecraft Lunch Club!

This blog post is co-written with the lovely Heather Docherty – my main partner in crime (I mean, inspirational work colleague!) You can follow her on Twitter here: @hdocherty215  and while we’re at it, my Twitter handle here: @teacherbau

 

For the past few weeks, we have been volunteering our time to run a playtime Minecraft Club for 20 learners from Years 3, 4 and 5.  Learners were put into teams consisting of two Year 5s, one Year 4 and one Year 3.  

Over the course of the five weeks, the teams worked together to complete challenges in a world that was created based on the book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It’s a brilliant world, you can find it on the Minecraft Education Edition website here.

The challenges that learners participated in were: 

  • Compass Challenge 
  • Scavenger Hunt 
  • Treasure Map 

In Compass Challenge, learners had to navigate around the Island and discover beacons placed at the eight main compass directions. To prove that they worked as a team, they had to take a team photo at each location, and send the photos to the two of us.  This was challenging because learners were tempted to fly off in all directions, and then had to negotiate where to go first, how to gather as a group for the photo, and how to keep track of which beacons had not yet been located. 

During Scavenger Hunt, learners worked in their same teams to find all of the items listed in a Minecraft Notebook. They were able to split up for this challenge, as time was limited. This challenge required constant communication and co-ordination as learners had to determine which items had been found, and ensure that photos of each finding were taken to record the location of the objects as evidence.  There was a great deal of confusion and then laughter as learners tried to complete the item, ‘tame a parrot’. 

Finally, learners were presented with the most complicated challenge yet – Treasure Map.  The Island they were working in is based on the original drawing from the book Treasure Island, with treasure hidden at the three locations marked with an ‘X’ on the original map. Learners had to work together to interpret the map on the Smartboard and compare it to the map on their computers within Minecraft. This required learners to use their understanding of map reading, including rotating, zooming and closely observing details.  Working within a limited timeframe meant that learners had to collaborate, with some taking on the role of map reader, team coordinator, treasure digger and photographer. 

Logistics

To enable the Minecraft Club to be a success, we created excitement amongst the students by informing them during the day that the Club would be on offer.  We then held a ‘find out more’ session during a lunch time.  We showed them the world, and explained how the Club would work.  We then took down the names of learners that were interested (some decided it wasn’t for them – they had been hoping for free play).  Happy to say, we had far too many interested learners!  So, we drew names then and there out of a hat, and created the first cohort. We sent home permission letters, outlining that it was a commitment, and it would be taking place during a playtime.  We also explained that continued participation hinged on learners following the school’s established ICT agreement.  We had 100% take-up, and our learners eagerly attended every session.

Outcome

We have been very proud of the collaboration between learners, with more experienced players providing guidance and support for newer participants. Seeing learners from a mix of year levels engaged together in problem solving, negotiation and fun has been well worth giving up some break time!  We had a new contingent of learners begin the Club this week, and we’ll be hunting through the Minecraft for Education World Library for another suitable world for later next term.

Conclusion

Give it a go!  It was fantastic that we had each other – that meant we could still take it in turns to duck out and have a snack etc.  So, while you could run a club by yourself, everything is better with friends, so we recommend that you rope in a colleague. You don’t have to have a lot of personal knowledge of or ability in Minecraft, just read the notes attached to the world.  An open mind and adventurous spirit will get you through!

 

Skip to toolbar