Build your own history lesson

Me tiro whakamuri, kia anga whakamua.

If we want to shape Aotearoa New Zealand’s future, start with our past.

The Learning that Matters

Students will

• Be introduced to examples of events and people that helped shape Aotearoa’s History, and understand how others might interpret these events, people, and relationships differently • Look at local examples of people and events that have helped shape your community’s history.

• Choose a person or event that has played a part in their local or our national history and research and document key points that can be recreated in a Minecraft world. • Collaboratively or working alone, create a Minecraft world that teaches other students around Aotearoa about their chosen person or event.

• Utilise World Builder mode, NPCs (non-player characters) and a variety of world builder blocks to create an engaging experience for their audience that may include a build challenge.

Resources

In lesson 1 students will need to choose an event or person to base their Minecraft World on. The Te Ara website is a good resource for finding relevant topics for your students.

https://teara.govt.nz/en

The site has a search box and allows searching for topics, people or locations. This Twinkl site has a good list of famous New Zealanders.

https://www.twinkl.co.nz/teaching-wiki/famous-new-zealanders

The NZ History site also allows searching by place, dates, people, topics and events. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/

Students will be instructed to choose a person or event that means something to them. The topic will also have to be built in Minecraft. Most experienced Minecrafters will have no problem building just about any kind of scenario, however if your students are younger or less experienced with Minecraft you might want to encourage a simpler topic. A list has been supplied below.

Suggested Topics

Students are encouraged to choose a topic relevant to them, however here are some suggested topics that would translate well to an informative Minecraft World.

• Kauri Gum and Gum Digging

https://teara.govt.nz/en/kauri-gum-and-gum-digging

• Sir Edmund Hillary

https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/6h1/hillary-edmund-percival

• The Otago Gold Rush

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/first-major-gold-rush-otago-starts

• Hōne Heke

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/hone-heke

• Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi), a large topic so choose one part of the signing process.

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty-of-waitangi

• Jean Batten

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/jean-batten

• Polynesian Panthers and the dawn raids

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/te-akomanga/contexts-activities/teaching-polynesian-panthers dawn-raids

• Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/rainbow-warrior-sunk-in-auckland

• New Zealand's 19th-century wars, pick one particular war or area to tell the story. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/new-zealands-19th-century-wars/introduction • Eruption of Mt Tarawera

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/eruption-of-mt-tarawera

Minecraft Skills that will be Taught

To empower students to be able to create interactive Minecraft Worlds, they will be taught the following skills during the Live Lessons. Separate Resource sheets have been provided to hand out to students.

1. How to spawn NPCs (non-playing characters)

2. How to give NPCs dialogue

3. How to give NPC’s commands e.g., teleport the player, change the time of day or give them an item

4. Structure blocks, how to copy and paste buildings in a world

5. Allow and Deny blocks, allow or deny building in certain areas of their world 6. How to include a build challenge at the end of their lesson