Making Minecraft Materialize

thingiverse

Anyone who spends time with kids between the ages of 6 and 14 knows there's a new greeting commonly heard within some crowds- "Last night when playing Minecraft..." While it's easy to mentally check out on most of what follows, let's instead harness that interest to teach students about 3D modeling and desktop fabrication, and slip a little math and writing in for good measure! How I Designed This Like all of my designs I used Tinkercad to design the example due to its ease of use, no cost, and since it is browser based. I have had luck teaching students as young as seven the basics of Tinkercad, making it well suited for use in elementary school. Standards NGSS CCSS Overview and Background Thanks to the high interest nature of Minecraft, students will design and print characters and/or landscapes found in the Minecraft world, with some fun math thrown in along the way! Objectives: Students will learn the basics of designing with Tinkercad in order to print their own Minecraft themed thing. Determining the volume of each thing will increase learning, and creating a classroom Minecraft scene at the end will build engagement. Skills Learned (Standards): NGSS: 3-5-ETS1-1 CCSS: 5.MD.C.3, 5.MD.C.4, and 5.MD.C.5 Lesson Plan and Activity Given the continuing popularity of Minecraft, it shouldn't be too hard to introduce this lesson to students (some will cheer, others will groan, but either way you'll have their attention), challenging them to help create a 3D Minecraft scene in the classroom. After some brief research on a Minecraft creature (or structure) of their choice, students dive into Tinkercad, or the design program of your choice. Based on the dimensions the model, students must calculate the total volume of their design. Extension: Require each student to also calculate the volume of other student designs. For reference, the example creeper I designed is 20 mm (w), 20 mm (d), and 60 mm (h), with a total volume of 18 cubic cm. Students should be given time to print, redesign, and print their thing again as materials allow. Create a Minecraft diorama in the classroom composed of student models. Extension: Assign open-ended writing prompts based on the scene you created! For example: "Having completed his initial task, Steve knew what he had to do next." Optional- Use the "Download for Minecraft" function in Tinkercad to migrate student models for use in the virtual world. Duration of Lesson 5-10 sessions Preparation This lesson can be given to students already familiar with the design and fabrication process, or used to introduce them to the subject. Rubric and Assessment See the suggested guidelines file above for some ideas on possible assessment. References Minecraft (https://minecraft.net/en/) Handouts & Assets: Minecraft Education Website (http://education.minecraft.net/) Project: Making Minecraft Materialize