Minecraft Historical Recreation

10-50 points

Your assignment is to re-create an historic site from a time period that you have studied during your 7th or 8th grade year.  The steps to take are as follows:

1. Enter Google Docs and describe the site you are re-creating and its historical significance. Attempt to answer the 6 journalistic questions in full sentences:

   1. 1. 1. What is this site?

         2. Who was in charge of the site? (And/or who does it depict? Who lived there?)

         3. When was it built?

         4. Where is this structure located in the world?

         5. Why was this structure built, and why is it still relevant today?

         6. How was this structure built?

2. Please also include a few pictures of the original site for reference in your report (please wrap them!)

3. Then, enter Minecraft’s creative mode and attempt to recreate your site in detail. Both the inside and the outside should be accurately represented based on photos of the outside and inside, if appropriate.  If you can find the size of your site, you should build it to scale. Consider each block to be roughly one square meter (or foot, if you want to get into more granular detail--just let me know beforehand!).

4. When finished, call me around to grade it. I cannot accurately grade it without the ability to walk around and inspect your structure, so it must be a face-to-face grading as opposed to simply pictures.

An example of a structure that might be worth 10 points is a recreation of the John Rankin house (small and simple, but still culturally important), and one that might be worth 50 points is The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (enormous and detailed). You can always check in with me to figure out how much a certain project might be worth!

Your grade will be based on the historical recreation created on Minecraft and a thorough, written description of the site based on the items listed above.

Hint: Consider creating a Superflat world (when creating your new world, choose World Type -> Superflat). This will allow you a very large, flat “canvas” for creating your masterpiece.

Grading Rubric

90% – 100% of the original estimated value: All requirements on the Minecraft application and written description are at an exceptional level.  This includes the creation of a sophisticated site with complex additions, and a thoroughly written description that includes details that add to the description.

80% - 89% of the original estimated value:  All requirements on the Minecraft application and written description are at an acceptable level.  This includes the creation of a village with some complex additions, and a written description that includes some details that add to the description.

70% - 79% of the original estimated value:  Some requirements on the Minecraft application and written description are at an average level.  This includes the creation of a village, and a written description that includes few details that add to the description.

60% - 69% of the original estimated value: Few requirements on the Minecraft application and written description are at a below average level.  This includes the creation of a village with little to no complex additions, and a written description that includes little to no details that add to the description.

59% - and below of the original estimated value:   Little to no requirements on the Minecraft application and written description are minimal or not included.  This includes the creation of a village with no complex additions, and a written description that includes no details that add to the description.

 Can I do this extra credit from home?: MAYBE (Inside your "saves" folder on Minecraft, you can find your world and bring it on a thumbdrive to class. Will it work with our version of Minecraft [1.7.1]?! I'm not sureI No one's ever tried it before, so be the first! Let's experiment!)

Here's an example of a project that was worth 50 points, for sure! (Roman Coliseum)

Here's another 50 point project. (Pyramid of Giza)