Second Idea (Second choice)
I would like to sign up and download Minecraft (https://minecraft.net/) to learn how to navigate and collaboratively work with others to create a world online. Many of my students currently play Minecraft and our school district has been discussing potentially adding Minecraft to our classrooms. My principal told myself and another teacher that we could have a few extra Mac computers in our rooms next year to have our students use Minecraft. I am signed up for a professional development course this summer, through my district, to learn about Minecraft modding. I know very little about the game so far besides what I saw my students do on the day they all played Minecraft together at the Code to the Future campus. The only disadvantage to Minecraft is that it is not a web-based program so my students would be unable to play it on their chromebooks.
My goal is to create a character, build buildings, and interact with other users to enhance my Minecraft skills. I am really interested in how Minecraft works in general. I know it is a video game, which can be fun and entertaining. This would be the play aspect of my project. I would have to sit down, work at and innovatively create a character, buildings, and navigate the various parts of the game to demonstrate my learning. This would be the making aspect of my project. And lastly, I would have to research, watch videos, interact with other Minecraft users and learn about how to build things in order to create my own building. This would be the knowledge aspect of my project. There are also areas in which I can fail because Minecraft is a totally unknown game to me. I will most definitely not get everything right on the first try because there are so many different aspects of the game.
Throughout the five weeks of learning and creating, I would like to answer these 10 inquiry-based questions:
- What is Minecraft, at its most basic level?
- Why would Minecraft be beneficial for someone to learn?
- What life skills can be practiced when playing Minecraft?
- What are the different aspects of buildings that combine to make it better than others?
- How can interacting with other users improve my Minecraft skills?
- If my building is not done well, how do I find out how to make it better?
- What can I learn from other players’ buildings that will improve my games?
- Is Minecraft the best game for collaborating using technology? What else is out there?
- How advanced are the buildings that can be created using Minecraft?
- Are there communities outside Minecraft that can help with making more advanced buildings?
My district has recently opened a Code to the Future campus at one of our school sites and has made coding classes available for our students on weekends and over the summer. Our school participated in the “Hour of Code” this year to expose students to computer science and show them that anyone can learn to code (https://hourofcode.com/us). All the schools in our district that had 100% of the students participate in the Hour of Code were entered into a drawing and the winning school was able to take each class to the Code to the Future campus and have a day of code. Our school, W.D. Hall Elementary, won the raffle. Each class participated in a day of code and learned from the Code to the Future teachers. Our fifth grade class was lucky enough to get a special coding day of Minecraft. I would love to learn more about Minecraft and how to integrate it into my curriculum, but Minecraft is not a web-based application so having a class set of chromebooks restricts my students’ usage. This lead me to two possible options for my 20Time project. I am really interested in learning how to integrate computer science into my classroom. I can either learn about and play Minecraft or learn how to code and create a game of my own. Both include learning how to teach my students to participate in collaborative learning with technology.
First Idea (First choice)
I would like to use the web-based Scratch application (https://scratch.mit.edu/) to learn how to create and share games. I want to learn how to make games using coding so I can be better equipped next year to have my students participate in coding in my classroom. My principal informed us that we have the opportunity to have the Code to the Future staff teach our students 6 weeks of coding next year. I am really excited for this. However, only the Code to the Future staff would be instructing. I would like to know how to help and take the instruction farther than the six week duration. The nice thing about this project is I can have all my kids also use Scratch on their chromebooks, whereas Minecraft cannot be used on chromebooks.
My goal is to design a game on Scratch that other Scratch users can play and comment on to enhance my coding skills. I am really interested in how coding works and I enjoy puzzles and logic challenges. This would be the play aspect of my project. I would have to sit down, work at and innovatively create a game using the provided software to demonstrate my learning. This would be the making aspect of my project. And lastly, I would have to research, watch videos, interact with other Scratch users and learn about how to code in order to create my own game. This would be the knowledge aspect of my project. There are also areas in which I can fail because coding requires trial and error as well as learning how to put certain pieces of the puzzle together to make a comprehensive game.
Throughout the five weeks of learning and creating, I would like to answer these 10 inquiry-based questions:
First Idea (First choice)
I would like to use the web-based Scratch application (https://scratch.mit.edu/) to learn how to create and share games. I want to learn how to make games using coding so I can be better equipped next year to have my students participate in coding in my classroom. My principal informed us that we have the opportunity to have the Code to the Future staff teach our students 6 weeks of coding next year. I am really excited for this. However, only the Code to the Future staff would be instructing. I would like to know how to help and take the instruction farther than the six week duration. The nice thing about this project is I can have all my kids also use Scratch on their chromebooks, whereas Minecraft cannot be used on chromebooks.
My goal is to design a game on Scratch that other Scratch users can play and comment on to enhance my coding skills. I am really interested in how coding works and I enjoy puzzles and logic challenges. This would be the play aspect of my project. I would have to sit down, work at and innovatively create a game using the provided software to demonstrate my learning. This would be the making aspect of my project. And lastly, I would have to research, watch videos, interact with other Scratch users and learn about how to code in order to create my own game. This would be the knowledge aspect of my project. There are also areas in which I can fail because coding requires trial and error as well as learning how to put certain pieces of the puzzle together to make a comprehensive game.
Throughout the five weeks of learning and creating, I would like to answer these 10 inquiry-based questions:
- What is code, at its most basic level?
- Why would coding be beneficial for someone to learn?
- What life skills can be practiced when coding?
- What are the different aspects of a game that combine to make it entertaining?
- How can interacting with other users improve my coding skills?
- If my game does not get many players or comments, how do I find out how to make it better?
- What can I learn from playing other games that will improve my games?
- Is Scratch the best coding web-based software? What else is out there?
- How advanced are the games that can be created using Scratch?
- Are there communities outside Scratch that can help with making more advanced games?