Teacher: Museum Minecraft: Rocks and Minerals

Program Structure

Program overview

Basic outline

Part 1

Virtual Visit #1: 60 minute introductory virtual visit with a ROM Educator (Guided) or Introductory play-along video (Independent)
- - Preparation: Minecraft: EE should be installed on students' devices before the orientation.
Class time to visit 3 research sites and complete 5 coding challenges (~8 class periods)
- - Preparation: Ensure students know what questions they are attempting to answer, and how you want them to document their work.
  - Lesson 0 - Orientation
  - Lesson 1 - White Path Coding
  - Lesson 2 - White Path Research - Igneous Rocks
  - Lesson 3 - Blue Path Coding
  - Lesson 4 - Blue Path Research - Sedimentary Rocks
  - Lesson 5 - Red Path Coding
  - Lesson 6 - Red Path Research - Metamorphic Rocks
  - Lesson 7 - Hassan & Wei - Research Review
Use the Achievement Hunters badges for students who complete ALL the NPC research in lessons 2, 4, and 6.

Part 2

Virtual Visit #2: 60 minute review virtual visit with ROM Educator (Guided) or pause and play video (Independent) to review rocks and minerals knowledge and prepare for museum build
Class time to build student rock and mineral museums (~6 class periods)
- Lesson 8 - Museum Builds
Share with ROM Educator via Padlet for peer review and feedback
Finalize builds and summative assessment (~2 class periods)

Structure Notes

Teacher will receive the Museum Math: Rocks and Minerals world file from the Minecraft Lesson Library.
Teacher will distribute the world file to students using class distribution resources after Orientation #1.
Students should work individually or in pairs for the coding challenges, but may wish to combine into larger groups for the museum builds.
Students will require time to visit three different research sites.
- - On the way to each research site, students will encounter 1-2 coding challenges to document with their camera/book & quill and/or Flipgrid for assessment and learning.
  - At each research site, students will answer prompts using their camera/book & quill and/or Flipgrid for assessment and learning.
Students will also occasionally assist NPCs to build simple bar graphs to analyze data.
After completing their work at the research sites, students will build a museum to showcase their in-game and in-class learning.
When students are about 75% finished their museums, they can create museum tours in your "Museum Tours" Flipgrid thread, and make final adjustments with peer and teacher feedback.

Best Practices:

Upon receiving their copies of the world file, students should rename it with their name/group name.
Students should export their world files and code files regularly to a USB or cloud drive to ensure work is not lost.
Times indicated above are approximations based on moderate familiarity with Minecraft/coding and may need to be adjusted up and down to suit your class needs.

Performance Expectations:

Students will use environmental clues to interpret and understand the formation of several types of rocks and minerals.
Students will use computational thinking to code solutions to problems using consecutive, concurrent, repeating, and nested code.
Students will apply their knowledge to create in-game displays and labels that communicate their learning to others.

Walkthrough

Phase 1: Coding, Research, and Resource Gathering

Part 1: Volcano Camp

Students will go through the white door and travel to the Volcano Camp.
Along the way, students will encounter Indigenous Scientist Sarabeth, who will inform them that the path to the camp has been flooded with lava.
Students must code their agent using a chain of consecutive commands to navigate the tunnel and activate the emergency cooling system.
Students will continue through the tunnel to meet ROM Scientist Katherine Dunnell at the Volcano Camp.
Students will collect rock samples from the Volcano Camp.
Students will learn facts and examine images of Royal Ontario Museum rock and mineral specimens by interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) around the camp.
Students will use their camera and book & quill to document clues in the environment that help them figure out what type of rocks they are collecting (igneous, sedimentary, and/or metamorphic) and how those rocks were formed.

Part 1a: Aaron's Bar Graph

1. Students will encounter Aaron at the Volcano camp, who needs help sorting the rocks found at the Volcano Camp into intrusive (cooled slowly inside the Earth) and extrusive (cooled quickly outside the Earth).
2. Students will use environmental clues, NPC dialogue, and links to images from Royal Ontario Museum Collections to determine if the rocks they have collected are intrusive or extrusive.
3. Students will stack the rocks by type to create a 2-column bar graph.

Part 2: Dig Site

Students will go through the blue door and travel to the Dig Site.
Along the way, students will encounter Indigenous Scientist Cedar, who will inform them that the bridge across their path has washed out.
Students must code their agent, using consecutive, repeated, and nested code, to rebuild the broken bridge.
Further down the path, students encounter Indigenous Scientist Felix, who tells them about the controlled burn of the savannah, and how a dead tree has fallen to block the path.
Students talk to ROM Intern Jakub, who has a partial code to break through the tree, but his code isn’t working.
Students must debug Jakub’s code and complete it so that they can break a path through the tree that is wide and tall enough to ride their horse through.
Students continue down the path to meet ROM Scientist Veronica DiCecco at the Dig Site.
Students will collect rock samples from the Dig Site.
Students will learn facts and examine images of Royal Ontario Museum rock and mineral specimens by interacting with NPCs around the camp.
Students will use their camera and book & quill to document clues in the environment that help them figure out what type of rocks they are collecting (igneous, sedimentary, and/or metamorphic) and how those rocks were formed.

Part 3: Mountain Camp

Students will go through the red door and travel to the Mountain Camp.
Along the way, students will encounter Indigenous Scientist Jesse, who informs them that an invasive species brought by settlers has taken over the path and will harm the player and their horse if they try to ride through it.
Students must code their agent, using consecutive, concurrent, repeated, and nested code, to destroy the bushes blocking the path.
Further down the path, students encounter Indigenous Scientist Dio on the shore of a large body of water. Dio informs them that their horse can’t swim and they must find some way to connect the islands so that the students can ride their horses across.
Students apply skills from all previous coding challenges to have their agent build a series of bridges between islands and the opposite shores.
Students continue down the path to meet ROM Scientist Dr. Kim Tait at the Mountain Camp.
Students will collect rock samples from the Mountain Camp.
Students will learn facts and examine images of Royal Ontario Museum rock and mineral specimens by interacting with NPCs around the camp.
Students will use their camera and book & quill to document clues in the environment that help them figure out what type of rocks they are collecting (igneous, sedimentary, and/or metamorphic) and how those rocks were formed.

Part 4a: Hassan's Bar Graph

1. Students will encounter Hassan on the upper level of the Research Centre, who needs help sorting the rocks the students have collected into igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
2. Students will use environmental clues, NPC dialogue, and links to images from Royal Ontario Museum Collections to determine if the rocks they have collected are igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic.
3. Students will stack the rocks by type to create a 3-column bar graph.

Part 4b: Wei's Bar Graph

Students will encounter Wei on the upper level of the Research Centre, who needs help sorting samples from Rocklandia into rocks and minerals
Students will use environmental clues, NPC dialogue, and links to images from Royal Ontario Museum Collections to determine if the samples in Wei’s chest are rocks or minerals.
Students will stack the blocks by type to create a 2-column bar graph.

Phase 2: Museum Build

Part 5: Museum Build

1. Students will pass through the yellow door to the build site. ROM Interpretive Planner Courtney informs the students about the job of an Interpretive Planner and allows them to switch into Build Mode (creative).
2. Students must design and build a museum to showcase their learning about rocks and minerals.
3. Museum designs should give thought to inclusivity (whose voices are represented and whose stories are being told) and accessibility (who is able to physically access exhibitions and galleries, what obstacles might they face, and how can you build accommodations into your museum).
4. Students should create a culminating Museum Tour or Museum Guide using Flipgrid or the Camera and Book & Quill.

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