Roller Coaster Challenge R-1

As we come to the end of our term (and the first I write this blog), I wanted to do something cool to finish the term off, so the challenge was to build Roller Coasters!

The premise was simple, with an empty but diverse plot of land, use the world around you to build a Roller Coaster. I was also aware of course that, as this is the end of term, our younger students needed a break. Over the last 6 weeks I found that the students loved the opportunity to build and explore, so I built one track, showed the students how to do this and use a railway cart and set them away.

Here’s the video of what we saw below.

As you can see – the students took the opportunity to explore and create and ran with it. One young fella decided it was his mission to populate the world with bats and, armed with a chache of Monster Creators and bat eggs that’s exactly what he did. Another took to building at the top of the hill, while another two found snow and decided to chase the snowflakes as high as they could, while others decided that what this world really needs is more polar bears (and who can blame them?) Yet 2 more decided to build a nether portal and travel into the Nether. As we were in Creative mode, they didn’t have any mobs to contend with, so all was right with the world.

We even had a few interesting uses of dynamite – from using it for excavation (results visible in the video) to using it as a propellant to make themselves fly across the screen (unfortunately I didn’t capture this, and wanted the session to be as organic as possible). My own attempt to try and ride the roller coaster from the top to the bottom was cut short when I found that the top of the cliff was designated for demolition!

While the students by and large only took a passing interest in the objective I had set, and given the context of the time of year etc. I felt it was important to allow the students this session time to explore and create. Each Reception student was able to demonstrate to me an extended proficiency with the keyboard and mouse when compared with the start of this program. Each of the Year 1 students and some of the Reception showed me an ability to use some of the skills we had used this half term, along with things they had experimented with at home, to discover and explore in their own way. It was also interesting to see how, again compared to the start of the term, students were much more likely to work with a friend in the game, whether that was building or exploring.

Tunnel Challenge

Right, so the bugs I reported last week, after an email conversation with the good folks at Mojang may have just been due to me not restarting my computer as it was due an update. I know, rookie error. Hopefully I’ll have videos during sessions from next week.

Anyway, onto this weeks challenge: tunneling. Armed with an infinite supply of torches and an indestructible diamond pickaxe, students started the world inside a glass structure at the top of a mountain. Deny blocks were placed around the glass walls to stop them accidentally destroying these.

Why? Because the world outside was infested with monsters!

Here’s a video of before and after.

The video clearly doesn’t tell the whole story, so let me fill you in.

For Reception and Year 1 this was a first chance to experience survival mode. They were shown the way down and a set of steps led down a small part of the way. Students were shown how to get going and were allowed to get started.

What the students did next was interesting. The more confident boys in Year 1 were off; they went mining and took themselves down as far as they could get, turning back if they came across dirt so that the monsters wouldn’t get them. A few Reception students (boys and girls) followed them, not pushing themselves too far forward but not wanting to be left alone either. One of these got brave and broke out of the side of the mountain and, seeing no monsters, made a run for it.

Others set themselves up in the first chamber or near the top, trying to avoid the fireballs launched by the Ghasts overhead. To encourage them to move down, lava (an old favourite) was poured on the top of the mountain where the glass house had been.

I had pvp damage turned off which had an interesting side effect – if one student dug down and another followed, they would eventually get stuck, not able to dig or move. To solve this I would teleport in and remove some blocks (for Reception) or use the /kill command and get them to respawn. Once the earth was scorched at the top, the respawn point was moved.

For Year 2 & 3 the way they challenged the task was fascinating. Most of the boys decided to dig under the glass walls and get out to take on the monsters.

They didn’t last long.

Two Year 2 boys and most of the girls decided instead to dig themselves in and hide. They dug out a living space, and then used some of the cobblestone they had mined to block up any doorways and hide after they had seen that some of the monsters had gotten beyond the glass walls.

Having suffered death several times at the top of the mountain, some of the boys decided to dig out a hole on the side of the mountain, but I had placed some Ghasts and Creepers on the sides after Reception’s efforts, which caused yet more deaths and some of the Creepers to get into the mountain causing explosive damage. One of the boys again managed to sneak out and get some wood. He then decided he was going to dig down to find some diamonds so he could take the monsters on. Unfortunately he ran out of time.

These two sessions were a great chance to see how students solved problems, and in particular how to adapt their plans when circumstances changed (eg. when monsters came in or when lava was poured). Often with children these ages in regular lessons, they will look to me (or any other teacher that teaches them) to give them the answer. In this session if they saw my avatar they assumed I was going to cause some problem and looked to each other or themselves to find the answer.

Boating Challenge Pt. 2

I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try the Boating Challenge again, on a slightly more challenging course and with less support. Students were given a boat in fixed inventory slot and encouraged to reach the end. The video below shows how the world looked after Reception and Year 1 finished.

The idea behind this challenge for our younger students was to once again simulate an alternative input, albeit one they had encountered the previous week. For our KS1/2 pupils the idea was to experience an environment that takes on a different use to that which they are used to. The world also gave students the opportunity to problem solve independently.

The results were again interesting.

For Reception and Year 1, they were in an immutable Adventure World, and could go exploring if they reached the temple at the end. Two managed it. Some of the others (as noted by the flotilla of empty boats all over the course) found it difficult to stay in their boats as they kept reverting back to the typical method of movement.

Year 2 and 3 were put in a copy of the world that was set to Survival Mode, and could explore or build their way through. Housepoints were also offered to the first three to reach the end. One girl decided she wasn’t bothered with the boat and decided to swim. Another was so determined to finish beyond one of her friends that she dug up some dirt and blocked one to the narrower channels. Very Wacky Races! A third boy noticed the names of his friends through a mountain and dug through to reach them – digging a shortcut he called it.

Boating Challenge 101

This world was edited for a nice and gentle Extra Curricular Activity with Reception and Year 1. The premise was simple: each student has a boat, a camera and a portfolio to go sailing and exploring the rivers and taking pictures.

The world was set to Adventure Mode, so students could explore but not alter anything, They were given the opportunity to explore wherever they liked, but the path that I laid out using beacons had the most to discover.

Most of the students found the boat challenge challenging enough, while two made it to the end. I gave these the opportunity to either start building or to continue exploring, and both chose the latter.

As well as a way of getting kids engaged in simulations, this particular activity, requiring the use of multiple keyboard keys, as well as accurate use of the mouse supports development of KS1 objectives in ICT Skills.

Minecraft Lava Challenge

Recently we tried a twist on the building challenge – the Minecraft Lava Challenge! The premise is simple – pupils have a short time to build a house that has lava poured on it. If you live, you win! If you don’t, well…

Our younger students were allowed to use any blocks they liked in Creative Mode, and then the game was switched to Survival Mode just before the time of reckoning. For the Year 2s and 3s students were given a limited amount of wood and stone, and a diamond pickaxe. Students were encouraged to either share resources or mine for new ones (or both).

The Year 2s and 3s were all pretty good at sharing or mining resources to build their houses, and often used wood to build facades to try and trick me into thinking that their house had burned down. One boy had a hole in his roof but noticed this and build a wall to protect himself. No casualties there.

Reception and Year 1 was more of a mixed bag. I gave support to some of the Reception pupils to begin put rooves on their houses. One managed to finish his roof and survived. Another forgot to put the roof on because he was building a garage and lost out. One girl put an interesting glass roof on after initial help, but then realised she was on top of the house and couldn’t get in, so her house survived but sadly she didn’t.

Oh and one plucky fella survived simply by deciding that he couldn’t finish his house on time and just ran away.

Exploration World – Reception & Year 1

As we are a new school, this school year has seen each year group mix a range of new students with ones I know from last year, all with different levels of confidence when using computers, especially when using a keyboard and mouse.

To help develop these skills, and to try and to give a challenge to those that were already confident, I developed this world below:

The students playing this world had already played in a a simple Creative mode world making simple structures. To make it a little more difficult, this world was set as an immutable world in survival mode, albeit set to always day and with damage turned off.

The results were interesting. Some of the more confident students really enjoyed the challenge of sailing the boat and going off exploring once they had their camera and portfolio. Others, who found climbing the mountain too tricky decided instead to just go around it. One Reception boy even told me “it’s a sunny day so I’m just going to go for a swim” and off he did.