Embedded Files
Total module time: 5 - 6 hours. A full day should be devoted to this module.
Activity 1 - Knowledge Check and Embodied Astronomy Lesson (30 minutes)
Activity 1 - Knowledge Check and Embodied Astronomy Lesson (30 minutes)
Start with a 5 minute writing exercise. Put the following questions up on the board: "What do you know about the moon? How do the moon and earth affect each other?" Have students write their answers on paper and then collect. Spend a couple minutes letting students share what they know.
Before letting students log in and explore Astronomy concepts in Minecraft, give them a brief lesson about principles related to the Earth without a moon:
Have students get into groups of three with one student being the earth, one being the sun, and the other being the moon. The moon is tidally locked, meaning we only ever seen one side. Have the moon student orbit the earth (always facing the earth) while the earth student spins clockwise. Have the sun student stand in place and shine a flashlight on the moon while it slowly orbits the earth. Explain a moon cycle is 27 days. It is also important to note that the moon has gravitational pull on the earth, which affects the tides and the speed of the earth's rotation. See No Moon Concepts to prepare for next part.
After covering these basic concepts, have the moon student back away from the earth student. Ask students to act out what they think would happen to the earth if the moon disappeared. The earth student should start spinning faster. The sun student stays in place but light has nothing to bounce off of at night. Ask students what they think this means for life. Here is what to guide them towards:
The day-night cycle will be about 10 hours. This will really screw up sleep cycles for all animals.
Say goodbye to months!
We will have a clearer view of stars at night, but amount of light overall will be less. Nocturnal animals will suffer.
With Earth spinning faster, wind speed will globally increase by a lot.
Tall will fall - trees will be shorter, animals will be shorter and heavier, birds will mostly survive in caves, mountains will be shorter and erode more quickly, plant roots will be deeper.
Global weather patterns will see increased hurricanes, tornadoes, and other thunderstorms.
Activity 2 - Getting Started in Minecraft and Interest Survey (20 - 30 min)
Activity 2 - Getting Started in Minecraft and Interest Survey (20 - 30 min)
Start out by directing students to the New to Minecraft page. For first time students, allow them time to watch tutorial and then explore the Earth map in Minecraft. Experienced students can log in and start exploring Earth map immediately. Once every student is on the map, have them teleport to the moon map. They will start this map by taking an in-game STEM interest survey. Students will take a 5 point Likert scale survey asking questions about how often they engage STEM outside the classroom, how much they enjoy it, etc... Please see Interest Inventory under Researcher Resources. The survey will be done by students reading a question on a sign and then completing an action corresponding to a number. Students will step on pressure plates, activate switches, shoot arrows at targets, or blow open a door with TNT to progress through the survey. This will allow them to familiarize with more controls and abilities in the game. After survey give students time to explore the moon map while looking at survey results. See Researchers section for specific survey questions.
Point of interest - Redstone
During the interest survey, students will see many contraptions opening via switches, levers, pressure plates, dispensers, or buttons. This may trigger the interest of some students to know how this is happening in the game. If many student start wondering, it may be worthwhile to give them a brief introduction to Redstone and see what connections they can make between Redstone and what they experience in the real world. The below video provides you with a rundown of how to use the different Redstone objects so you an illustrate points about circuits to students.
Activity 3 - Grouping, Video, and Discussion (1 hour)
Activity 3 - Grouping, Video, and Discussion (1 hour)
Based on survey results, students should have received an interest number related to a possible role (engineer, physicist, business leader, economist, food expert/farmer, urban planner). Depending on how many students in the class, divide students into groups of six and assign each student the role that best fits their survey results. Have students watch the corresponding YouTube video for their role on Student Resources. Then have students discuss and plan in their groups how they might address some of the issues having no moon will present, what their individual role is, and how they can all collaborate. Questions to guide group discussions:
What is your role? What does it mean to be a _____?
How can you help others in their roles?
How do you think the other roles can help you in yours?
What issues do you need to address, in your role, to build a successful settlement?
Have each student write or draw their plans on paper for what they plan to do in Minecraft. This will be collected after the module.
Activity 4 - Play Minecraft (2 hours)
Activity 4 - Play Minecraft (2 hours)
Students are now told to put their plans in motion by building on the No Moon mod in Minecraft. Ask students to spend the first 20 minutes or so exploring the map and making observations. Observations can be made by typing "/observe" and then writing what they observe. This can be used as a knowledge quiz by asking students to make observations of concepts related to what was discussed during the embodied activity. Students should make at least 10 quality observations, this will need to be scaffolded, and students will be graded on making at least 10 observations and relation to course content. Off-topic observations, such as chat with others, will not be counted. Students will be encouraged to continue making observations and posing questions, which will be answered by the Astronomer role and instructor. Once this has been completed, give students free time to carry out the plans they drew and design a sustainable settlement.
Point of Interest - Scientific Thinking
After students make several observations, this might be a good opportunity to pause and point out how they are performing early stages scientific thinking (Qarareh, 2016).
Students are purposefully noting phenomena in the environment and comparing it to what they currently know (collecting data).
They may be making predictions or inferences about such data (hypothesizing).
When they build or carry out their plans they will be testing hypotheses (validating or rejecting).
If something does not work then they go through the process again.
The Qarareh paper, linked in References might help illustrate some of the points and provide a solid foundation for discussing scientific thinking with students.
Activity 5 - Present (1 hour)
Activity 5 - Present (1 hour)
Student groups will put their map up on the screen and explain what they built and why. Each student should be given time to present on how they fulfilled their role. The instructor can use this as another assessment of effort, as well as depth of processing and how many concepts each student was able to address with their design efforts. This does not have to be graded too stringently, but rather look at how students addressed problems and worked to overcome them. Student plans and drawings should be turned in prior to this so the instructor can see how much of the plan students were able to accomplish. Students in the audience will be asked to give habitability ratings for the presented settlements. Please see peer review on Learners page. You can use the following rubric to grade presentations (this can be adjusted if instructor has outcomes they want specifically addressed):
Overall quality of presentation: 5 - Outstanding to 1 - Low effort
Did students collaborate to solve problems: 5 - Clear Evidence to 1 - Not at all
Did each member contribute (This can be an individual rating): Yes - considerable to No - played on own.
Did students try to address difficulties of living on Earth with no moon through design: 5 - Yes, very well to No - 1 low effort
What did students do well?
What are areas for improvement?
Final Grade
Activity 6 - Interest and Reflection (30 - 40 min)
Activity 6 - Interest and Reflection (30 - 40 min)
After all students have presented, have them teleport back to the moon base and complete the interest survey again. This is primarily for research purposes to test the module and see if it produced any change in student individual interest. Finally, have students fill out four ICAN probes each. ICAN probes act both as measures of interest, as well as a measure of depth in processing of what it means to be a scientist. Renninger and Riley (2015) state four key things to consider when writing an ICAN probe:
What are the content goals of the lesson?
Are there new technical skills to be learned?
How does the lesson fit into the scope and sequence of the curriculum?
What questions and issues are students raising?
Use these questions to decide to write either conceptual or procedural ICAN probes. See ICAN probes below. Students can access this on the Learner page, too.
Finally, end the class by having students once again answer the questions, "What do you know about the moon? How do the moon and earth affect each other". Collect this as another knowledge check.
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