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COMPUTER GAMING
I am the teacher ... aren’t I? Not when it’s a Minecraft classroom! Club is a maker Brisbane Gram mar School’s The Lunchbox meets during that boys 8 and 7 Year for nt onme space envir tion. This is educa in es lunchtimes to explore new technologi oom tool, classr tial poten a as craft their story of trying Mine er. Hunt writes Debbie hbox Club to pilot a 2016 is the year our school allowed The Lunc able to use the be t migh we Minecraft group, to explore how l. Schoo le Midd our of oom program in the classr to play the game. We As the teacher, I know very little about how ng for something looki had already explored Scratch, and were across curric ulum y widel ng readi s more challenging. I’m alway to own this pilot boys the d wante and s, trend ing and about learn something and c project. Minecraft seemed popular, very publi for us to test out. never master it It became apparent from the outset that I would and let them forge as well as the boys. I had to ‘let go’, jump in, us. of all for ahead. It has been a valuable journey all the players in our The biggest challenge for me was to connect t, the curric ulum tmen depar IT the of rt suppo The school system. was vital to ers decision makers and the boys’ classroom teach to keep the boys the with success. So, too, was the negot iation . space oom classr our project contained to
Designer learning
rstanding of the My plan was to train the boys in a simple unde n activities to desig to them invite and , culum Australian Curri ing. To do study support the units of work they were currently learn ing ing ‘Mak blog, a this, I settled on the plan largely from n writte y simpl It’s o). howt ecraft /min in Minecraft fun!’ (bit.ly quick ly very They . ation inform more no d neede and the boys oom work, and adopted a unit of work from their regular classr cts as: proje group the ibes planned their activity. Ben descr the school’s Minecraft “There are many projects going at once on once and for all prove to goal: one with them of all r, EDU serve teacher for any by that Minecraft can be used very effect ively aptions to contr ous enorm been student education. There have castle and ing tower a icity, electr of ding rstan help with the unde historical of ion another yet to come to provide a 3D demonstrat the ce enhan to ouse fortresses and even an enormous treeh
STONE KEEP CASTLE
“This project aims to provide Year 8 students with a simulated model of a stone keep castle, which is studied in the medieval Europe section of the year. It aims to create interest in learning, and will have information stations that will be used to take notes and enhance the learning experience for all. While still in early development, the castle will have rooms filled with their allocated purpose (armoury, storage, etc.), a town will be built around the castle that will teach about peasants and social classes, and many more educational exhibits to come.” Ben
CARDBOARD CATHEDRAL, CHRISTCHURCH
ience. And these are understanding of the environmental exper Rumours of settings only the current major projects in progress. es are spreading like studi book in books being built to help with and smaller team, EDU the is that grass wildf ire among the a like science exhibit projects are scattered throughout the land gen atom.” hydro a es work in progress that already includ ed, and the boys From here, I made a chart of activities plann Humanities, the and ces Scien ry, Histo in cts proje began to build some Maths ing, Think Environment, Electricity, Computational probability, and so on.
Changing relationships
an engag ing For me, I have learned a great deal about what e in chang the ibe descr to ult diffic program can do! It’s . group this in nt evide been have that ps relationshi nt found access to Early on, we had an incident where a stude ct. The boys proje er anoth ed teacher status login, and affect responsibilities ed group of e natur the ssed discu alerted me, we ct the group, prote to and obligations, changed the teacher login managing with s issue more no and continued. There have been the server. diversify beyond my As they kept building and projects began to ge the project, mana to r knowledge, I appointed a Student Leade needed. He when oring ment for me and report the progress to d do no neede I and , peers ated dedic of group created his own MORMON TEMPLE, HAMILTON
INTERFACE 74 SEPTEMBER 16 more to keep boys on track, and solve any problems. The boys have managed this pilot project entirely on their own. The learning for them has been diverse and valuable: leadership models, peer problem solving, collaboration and shared responsibilities, shared learning, satisfaction of freedom to design, ownership of their success, and complete engagement.
This has freed me up to talk to them, listen to their conversation and plans. They learn from each other in a way I have never seen before in a classro om group. Their ideas are just constant, ongoing and amazi ng. Team member Edward writes: “Although much has been achieved, there have been many problems facing the diligent students toiling at these colossal tasks. Already people have gained access to Minecraft via the email with the link to download … and a student with evil intent had damag ed many of the projects with the game’s explosives. “The team have worked hard and the problems have been solved with time and a better understanding of admin istratio n systems that can disable explosives, block students from enterin g project areas and a tightly-kept secret that is the password for the mode that allows you to change these settings and potent ially wreak havoc among the projects. But among these technical difficulties, many new life skills have been learned.”
Showcasing projects
We will be sharing our learning with other classes, and teachers, and collaborating to make more classroom suitable projects take place in 2017. With the boys’ assistance, I hope to run the start of year Librar y Orientation program as a Minecraft activit y for new students. We will build our library space in MinecraftEd u. We plan to showcase our projects, over cake, at the end of the term to the Execut ive and curriculum leaders at BGS to continue their ongoing support.
The boys will continue to create worlds and continually share ideas that are relevant to their curriculum studies in these luncht ime meetings. They design, share, build and engage together.
We are hopeful that next year, as a result of this pilot project, we will have a server access for both the Senior and Middl e School students to continue building, design ing and demon strating ideas to staff and other classes. DEBBIE HUNTER IS A TEACHING AND LEARNING LIBRARIAN AT BRISBANE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, IN BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA. FOR MORE ON THE LUNCHBOX CLUB GO TO LUNCHBOXCLUB.BGSLIBRARYBLOG.ORG
TREEHOUSE “As you can see, this is a treehouse and looks pretty basic as we only whacked it up last Tuesday. The idea started with an environmental project, building tree farms and water treatment plants, then we though, Ha? Why not a treehouse? We originally got the idea from the 26 stories treehouse books by Andy Griffiths, but a bit more ecofriendly. The engineering is through the roof and up the wall ;) with farms and a sick roller coaster ride. There is a kitchen for your high school parties and a mass ive diving board for those crazy people who like risks. Was there ice on the pool below? Hmmm. I can’t remember . This treehouse was created by myself (Jack Harve y from Year 7) and Nick Spork from Year 8. Enjoy!” Jack “We are building a treehouse because we wanted something that stood out of the landscape, and I wanted to build a tower but Jack wanted a giant tree so we built a tower in a tree. We put in a support to hold it up and a rail winding around the tree. We also put in multip le floors separate from the tower.” Nick
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