STEAMincraft Professional Development

STEAMinecraft Professional Development

February 28, 2019 9:00-3:00

What is STEAMinecraft?

Early this dreary day I find myself at the Stafford Civic Centre ready to learn more about how Minecraft can be used in the learning environment. I've heard fellow classmates over the semesters talk about how much they enjoy using Minecraft on their campus. Although I've very familiar with gamification in the classroom due to personal use and further studies in my studies for Educational Technology, I was unsure how this game could be used to enhance learning. 

On a personal note, my husband and daughter both play Minecraft, but I've not had much interest in it. I have always been quite amazed at how many people really like this game. In my mind, I always saw it as a big lego game, where one puts pieces together and occasionally is interrupted by wandering animals and 'walking dead'. The graphics are so blocky and I just didn't understand the draw the game had. Maybe this day would change all that. 

STEAM is the integration of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics into the classroom. This is supported by real-world problems and the development of critical and creative thinking to solve these problems. 

Minecraft is a game that came out in 2011 and became an instant hit. Since then it has been discovered that the game can enhance learning across disciplines. Much like any game in the classroom, students become highly engaged in its use. Even with the teachers present today, moving from one activity to another was difficult because many found it hard to pull themselves away from the assigned challenges. 

The objectives, as listed out on the powerpoint, were to:

• Familiarize participants with the basic game mechanics and provide opportunities to practice
•  Experience various curriculum-related activities that can be modified for specific classroom needs
• Develop ideas for integrating Minecraft into curriculum, standards, and instruction.

The professional development was well designed in the elements of the lesson itself supported the best pedagogical practices with a variety of activities. The presenters introduced themselves and their positions with the Educational Collaborators. Then gathered our level of prior knowledge from a few quick questions to the audience. 

Activity One- How the Game is Played

Activity one was to allow time for new users to become with how Minecraft is played. The instructors were quick to add that as an educator we didn't need to be experts and we wouldn't know as much as our students, but we did need to know the basic play. Since some of the audience was already familiar with Minecraft they were offered a chance to play with 'Minecraft Adventure'. 

I've always had a decent hand at playing games. I took 1 hour time to rush through and quickly familiarize myself with movement and equipment use and built me a house complete with three stories, glass windows, and a door. There were still questions I had regarding the game, but I was well on my way to understanding the basic play of the game.

Activity Two- Build Challenges

This activity shows what can be accomplished through Build Challange cards. These cards are colorful cards with directions on how to create something. A few options for our group included creating:

• an animal
• a desert island
• a tree house
• a spaceship

I wanted to create a spaceship. These cards had worlds setup for the creation, but because of time constraint, we all just worked on the grass field world. We were highly encouraged to preplan/draw out what we were going to do. As an artist, I rarely just dive into a piece of work. Even if I don't draw it out, I"ll preplan it in my mind and have a mental picture of how I want it to look. 

Feverishly I worked on my spaceship. At times I would become frustrated with myself because I hit the right button instead of the left which would destroy what was in front of me. I'd laugh, fix it, and carry on. This simple act is important for students. They need to know they will make mistakes and how to deal with them. Even in that simple act students would be learning a valuable lesson.

The activity ended and it was funny to hear everyone frantically trying to perfect their work. Finally, the instructor told us to stand and move away from the computers to get us to stop, which I had to laugh at. At this point, we did what the instructor called a parade and we looked at everyone's work. I was in the back looking at someones when I heard a bit of talking. I turned to find a group at the table where I had been sitting. I moved back to that direction as it was time to sit back down and reflect on the lesson. As I walked by an instructor, I asked what was going on and apparently, there had been a bit of a debate about the level of knowledge of the person of one of the spaceships. I knew my buddy next to me had made one as well, so I wondered if it was one of ours. Once the reflection began they spoke about how impressed they were with one of the spaceships and said that everyone wanted to know if the person was an expert Minecraft person. I blushed to find out they all looked at me and I explained I had just started that morning with them. I've never touched Minecraft before, the presenters were impressed. 

Activity Three- How to Assess through Minecraft

Assessment through Minecraft can occur in a variety of ways. Pieces of the game and even the game itself can be exported to a file for viewing and assessment. One piece that I thought was fun was the pictures. By selecting the camera a player can take images of their environment within the game. There is even an option of taking a self-portrait! This can be built into a journal of the game. Then students can also add slates, boards, and posters to the game to label parts. 

I believe that this game is pretty versatile when it comes to ways one can assess the student's creations or roles within certain worlds. One example is to have students recreate a scene from a book within Minecraft then have them create pictures and a journal, which would show and explain parts of the book. 

Activity Four- Collaborative piece on Representing an aspect of our Community

This activity was perhaps the most fantastic and engaging piece of collaborative work I've ever had the joy to work on. First, we had to choose roles and preplan. This included taking into account, without judgment, what each of us could accomplish together. I was the World host that they all tapped into. We each quickly worked on our parts of a community square that we were creating called 'Perfect World Square'. 

My team created a town square with a park in the center. I was in charge of doing a building and then another person was making another building, but only finished the landscaping in front before time ran out. Our last member was really struggling to do anything on the game, so we had to help her out a bit. 

Conclusion/Survey of Professional Development

The amount of teamwork and working through challenges together through this program was more than enough to sell me on what Minecraft Education has to offer schools. In addition, the activities tapped into critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, and communication, which are the four aspects of 21st Century Learning. 

There are not enough words to express how much impact this program would have on a district. Although this program does cost a bit, there is no price on what our students could learn through activities on this. This system is definitely something I would try to bring to an educational campus. I would love to do training through the CDW program again and perhaps even become part of it!