Minecraft Day @ UNCG Self Design Studio (Makerspace) hosted a Minecraft Day! yesterday. The small mixed age/gender group spent a few hours "playing" Minecraft.Edu, an exciting"mod" for the world-popular "sandbox" platform Minecraft. Mike Renne supervised and instructed us through the basics. Matt and Sarah, UNCG Makers supported the process. I was a newbie with just a few hours of play under my belt. At NCCAT this summer, I was treated to an introduction to Minecraft.edu by Lucas Gillispie, (@lucasgillispie) & Alicia Ray, (@iluveducating) at NCCAT, (NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching-@NCCATNews) this summer. Planning on adding Minecraft to our Makerspace in October.
The youngers, (5-6 ~middle school age children) were absolutely the experts- calling to turn on this feature - that feature while the olders, (a couple dads, a few moms - 2 of us professional educators, (love to have met/shared the a.m. with Lisa Sunshine, Middle College at GTCC Science teacher extraordinaire) held on for dear life :)) Minecraft.edu, Workshop Administrator, Mike Renne supported by Matt & Sarah, UNCG Maker staff, was able to control the entire experience. Mike "froze" activity to reclaim attention, ignoring pleas by the youngers to turn on the "kill one another" mode - (it's got an acronym, but I was too busy trying to negotiate the controls to register it). He allowed passage of day into night without the coming of monsters, kept us in creative mode to allow us a full inventory of supplies and gave us animals, & weather. We were given a task to work together to move water from one area to another, but the youngers, (and yes, us olders too) were more interested in working independently.. Mike generously allow us to abandon the quest in favor of exploration. You might say we were "thirsty" for personal growth. (Thanks, Mike!) Minecraft.edu offers the perfect platform for maker education. and if you're a newbie like me, there are already lessons and resources available, HERE you'll find the official resource site. As an aside, I also got to try out Google Cardboard after the workshop ended. Something I've wanted to do ever since investigating them 2 summers ago, (downtime - something I didn't have this past summer with classes, conferences and camps). What a rush! One of our wonderful KMS Science teachers, (6th grade) Dave has been awarded a grant to purchase some for his classes. We're meeting this upcoming Thursday to talk about maker integration - So I've now had an initial introduction to help! Timing is perfect. I'd downloaded the template, picked up a pair of old binoculars at Goodwill, (my favorite store) for the lenses, but had not moved forward. After yesterday, I'm back in my "let's get it done!" mode. Another "cool" "get it done" maker project - an iphone holograph project made from an old CD Case, HERE is the link to that. Happy it's Labor Day weekend with an extra day built in for time to Make.
But I'm off topic! If you want to enjoy the Maker workshops UNCG has to offer, click HERE to see the goings-on via UNCG SELF studio FB page. Happy MAKING!
The youngers, (5-6 ~middle school age children) were absolutely the experts- calling to turn on this feature - that feature while the olders, (a couple dads, a few moms - 2 of us professional educators, (love to have met/shared the a.m. with Lisa Sunshine, Middle College at GTCC Science teacher extraordinaire) held on for dear life :)) Minecraft.edu, Workshop Administrator, Mike Renne supported by Matt & Sarah, UNCG Maker staff, was able to control the entire experience. Mike "froze" activity to reclaim attention, ignoring pleas by the youngers to turn on the "kill one another" mode - (it's got an acronym, but I was too busy trying to negotiate the controls to register it). He allowed passage of day into night without the coming of monsters, kept us in creative mode to allow us a full inventory of supplies and gave us animals, & weather. We were given a task to work together to move water from one area to another, but the youngers, (and yes, us olders too) were more interested in working independently.. Mike generously allow us to abandon the quest in favor of exploration. You might say we were "thirsty" for personal growth. (Thanks, Mike!) Minecraft.edu offers the perfect platform for maker education. and if you're a newbie like me, there are already lessons and resources available, HERE you'll find the official resource site. As an aside, I also got to try out Google Cardboard after the workshop ended. Something I've wanted to do ever since investigating them 2 summers ago, (downtime - something I didn't have this past summer with classes, conferences and camps). What a rush! One of our wonderful KMS Science teachers, (6th grade) Dave has been awarded a grant to purchase some for his classes. We're meeting this upcoming Thursday to talk about maker integration - So I've now had an initial introduction to help! Timing is perfect. I'd downloaded the template, picked up a pair of old binoculars at Goodwill, (my favorite store) for the lenses, but had not moved forward. After yesterday, I'm back in my "let's get it done!" mode. Another "cool" "get it done" maker project - an iphone holograph project made from an old CD Case, HERE is the link to that. Happy it's Labor Day weekend with an extra day built in for time to Make.
But I'm off topic! If you want to enjoy the Maker workshops UNCG has to offer, click HERE to see the goings-on via UNCG SELF studio FB page. Happy MAKING!