Minecraft Biomes

In this assignment, you get to do what you've always wanted to do: play Minecraft on the school computers!

Minecraft, for those who don't know, is a multi-platform video game. It is often called a "sandbox" game because of its open-world nature. A player has the ability to roam around in an enormous world and explore it at their leisure. Two modes exist in the game: survival, in which you must shield yourself from deadly creatures and eat food to stay alive, and creative, in which no creatures exist and you can simply explore all you want. We will be focusing on creative mode for the duration of this assignment.

Your job in this assignment is to do some research about the topic of biomes, which you may have covered in Science class. Did you know biomes exist in the Minecraft world, as well? You can take a look at all of them through careful observation! Your job is to: 

• start a game in creative mode

• find two examples of a biome that exists in both the real world and the Minecraft world (a list to help you is below)

• find one example of a made-up biome for the game. 

• take at least two pictures of each biome and mark them using Google Slides shapes like arrows. 

  • For the biomes that exist in both the real world and Minecraft world, one mark should indicate something that you are comparing, and one should indicate something that contrasts with the real world. 

  • For the fictional biome, the marks should indicate things that you find especially interesting!

• Finally, for the fictional biome, tell me what kinds of things an animal might have to do to adapt and survive in this environment. I've been informed that you've been taught about animal adaptations previously, so I know you're able to do it! 

Here is a list of biomes that exist in both the real and Minecraft worlds that the majority of your assignment will focus on:

Some biomes that do not exist in real life might include:

• The Nether

• The End

• Extreme Hills

• Mushroom Island

• River

• Beach

Of these, Beach and Extreme Hills are the most common, so if you're desperately looking for an unreal biome, check for those! (And yes, River and Beach do exist in real life...HOWEVER, they exist as parts of bigger biomes. In Minecraft, they're considered their own biomes. So if you're doing them as your fictional biomes, consider: how might an animal have to adapt if they ONLY lived on a beach or in a river?)

Get more information on Minecraft biomes at this link, and more information on real-world biomes over here.

Mr. Alexander's example is located here, and the rubric for the assignment is here.

Stray observations that may help you:

• If it becomes too dark to take pictures, sleep in a bed. (Access the bed from your equipment screen, add it to your inventory, drop it on the ground, and right click on it to go to sleep.)

• Your pictures are on the desktop, in a folder labeled "Minecraft Screenshots." Please make sure to copy and paste them into your personal folder, as anyone who uses your computer can have access to this folder!

• Can't find a weird biome you're searching for? Consider using a world seed. These are like "passwords" that give you pre-constructed worlds where certain biomes are easily available. Simply search for "Minecraft 1.7.1 seed (whatever biome you're looking for)" on Google and look around! (Fun fact: the 1.7.1 is because that's the version of Minecraft we're running!)

• Doing the Marine/Ocean biome, but can't see through the water? Take a Night Vision potion, which allows you to do just that!

• For animal adaptation, don't just provide a guide for how to "beat the game;" try to provide actual adaptations an animal might evolve over time. For example, instead of saying "they have to not fall on the spikes," you can say something like "they have to develop an incredibly tough hide in order to protect them against the naturally occurring spike pit."

• Be tourists, not terrorists! You're not here to set TNT everywhere or kill innocent cows; you're here to take pictures. Leave the environment alone!

Are you finished? Do you want to simply play Minecraft?! You can! Once this assignment is finished, you can do the Survival Journal on the extra credit page.