Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Minecraft Critical Thinking Task (Session 2)


Goal: To complete set up for Minecraft critical thinking task

Attendance: Lee Martin, Rob Dunlop

Overview:

- Reviewed additions made to procedures and guided questions.

- Solidified links to social studies curriculum (A. 2.3, A.3.4) and math curriculum. Confident that they are aligned effectively to culminating task.
 
Social Studies
         A2.3 analyse and construct maps as part of their investigations into interactions among and between First Nations and Europeans (e.g., thematic maps showing physical features that influenced settlement patterns, agricultural practices, or the habitat of animals that sustained the fur trade; historical maps that show First Nations territory at the time of contact or the expansion of New France
         A3.4 identify significant offices and institutions in New France (e.g., the seigneurial system; the Roman Catholic Church; the king, governor, bishop, and intendant; nuns, priests, missionaries), and describe their importance to settlers in New France “What effect did the seigneurial system have on the way land was divided and developed?”
Mathematics
        determine, through investigation using a variety of tools (e.g., concrete materials, dynamic geometry software, grid paper) and strategies (e.g., building arrays), the relationships between the length and width of a rectangle and its area and perimeter, and generalize to develop the formulas [i.e., Area = length x width; Perimeter = (2 x length) + (2 x width)];
        solve problems requiring the estimation and calculation of perimeters and areas of rectangles
        determine, through investigation, the relationship between capacity (i.e., the amount a container can hold) and volume (i.e., the amount of space taken up by an object), by comparing the volume of an object with the amount of liquid it can
        contain determine, through investigation using stacked congruent rectangular layers of concrete materials, the relationship between the height, the area of the base, and the volume of a rectangular prism, and generalize to develop the formula (i.e., Volume = area of base x height)

- Lee addressed concerns about giving students more guided practice.

- Decide to create a lead up assignment to give students practice, to work out any issues and to help build success criteria off of.

- After brainstorming, we decided to have student “Design Mr. Martin's Backyard”.

- We discussed our pedagogical approach to this assignment and agreed we would keep it very similar to culminating task. However, we would give less details as this assignment would become the basis of teaching perimeter, area and volume/capacity.

- Decided that we needed to extend the culminating task to include volume and capacity.

- Create the investigation for the “backyard planning”

- Developed and tweaked learning goal. Also, made predictions to what students would be able to come up with as success criteria.
 
Learning goal: To effectively demonstrate an understanding of perimeter, area and volume of
                          rectangles and cubes using Minecraft.
Unpack
- Proper Units
- Correct Forumlas
- Clear communication of math
- Variety of dimensions
- Guide Questions (Relationships)
- Accuracy
- Labels

- Decided that this would be tweaked more after the first assignment and that we would wait to make rubric to make it more authentic to the students with regards to their wording and ideas.

Next Steps:

- To get MinecraftEDU installed in the lab (waiting on a response)

- Lee to create graphic organizers for both investigations

- Set up 'World' in Minecraft MOD

MinecraftEDU


Goal: To create a critical challenge using Minecraft to teach measurement expectations

Attendance: Lee Martin, Rob Dunlop, Brad Mayhew

Overview:

- Lee justified the significance of using Minecraft in the classroom. Showed an online example that motivated him to undertake this initiative.



- Lee explained the set up for MindcraftEDU and the development of 'Mods'.

- Through discussion, we decided we wanted to create a cross curricular (math/social science) critical thinking task. We decided to create the seigneurial system in New France as an extension to the material being covered in social science.

- To get a better understanding of Minecraft, a grade 5 students came to answer several questions and demonstrate some of the tools used in the program.

- Based on what we learned from the student, we decided that we would focus on the measurement unit. In particular, investigations involving perimeter and area of rectangles and squares.

- We discussed the pedagogical approach we wanted to use. We decided to use the scientific investigation approach for our culminating assignment.

- We developed the purpose and materials and worked on developing the procedures.  As well, we started to explore different guided questions.
 
-  Click here to see the rough draft for the scientific investigation.
 
 
 
Next steps:
-  to further develop the investigation, create our learning goals and success criteria and to discuss how we would set up this culminating task