3D Printed Minecraft Castle Teaches Perimeter and Area

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I figured out that 3D printing is great for teaching spatial reasoning skills to students, but how does it work? I thought one of the main concepts in math was perimeter and area. It's easy to create and measure with a small object, and if students design and print it themselves, they'll learn the actual concept, not just how to calculate it. Print Settings Printer Brand: Printrbot Printer: Printrbot Plus Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: 0.3 Infill: 0.20 Notes: You can use a raft but it's a waste of filament. I recommend using a bigger nozzle if you can, as it will reduce print times drastically. You may need supports if some part of the castle is hanging over, but I told my students to make sure everything was built from the ground up. How I Designed This Basic process and design I had my students use Minecraft to design their castles and then exported them using Mineways to print them on our 3D printers. As for using Minecraft to design it, I downloaded a map from the MinecraftEdu library that allowed my students to teleport into their own workspace so no one else could enter. For the castle, I made sure they used at least 7-10 blocks for the height of the castle walls and two blocks deep and two blocks wide for the moat. This will help when you print it out. I also had them create rooms inside the castle and taught them about bird's-eye view and basic blueprint design principles. I went over the typical aspects of castles and the purpose of a moat beforehand. This is where the perimeter concept ties in. I then had them research Minecraft castles with moats for inspiration. The area concept ties in when you get the area of the castle. It takes about 5-7 one-period classes for most students to finish their castles, and it can take a bit to print them out depending on how many printers you have and what nozzle diameter you use. Expect to go through a few rolls of PLA, and I wouldn't use ABS unless you absolutely need it. Some of these castles can take 4-5 hours to print with a 0.4mm nozzle. Lesson Plan and Activity Begin with MinecraftEdu if you can; it's about $500 for a server license and 32 workstation licenses. If you can do that, just get the regular Minecraft license. Next, download Mineways. It's free and pretty easy to use after watching a five-minute YouTube video. Now go over the basics of castles and moats with a focus on why there was a moat to begin with. Now connect that with the concept of perimeter using real-world concepts with academic vocabulary to introduce profound understanding. Review their Minecraft design and make sure the walls are tall enough and the moat is deep enough to come out when you print them. Download the Minecraft map using Mineways and save it as an STL. Print out the design and have your student label it and paint it to look like a castle. Teach your students that Minecraft is a block system, and each block counts as one. You can choose whatever unit of measure you want but I would start with "block." Have them say my castle has a perimeter of "X" blocks. This allows them to understand the concept later, you can have them measure other objects and introduce units of measure after they understand the concept. Duration of Lesson: 5-7 class periods Preparation: Students should know about Minecraft and how to use it or expect to do some lessons on using it. YouTube is great for that. If their not accustomed to using a keyboard and mouse give them time to practice. Rubric and Assessment: My only assessment was that they could label their castle with the correct perimeter and area. References: MinecraftEdu: http://education.minecraft.net/minecraftedu/ Mineways: http://www.realtimerendering.com/erich/minecraft/public/mineways/ How to use it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmsnE85GNV8 YouTube link on Minecraft: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=minecraft+tutorial