Three sessions each week: Monday (all girls), Tuesday (mostly 2nd grade boys) and Wednesday (complete mix). Monday had one holiday so the girls are one session ‘behind’ but really they were more focused and are further along than the other days were by that point. I have led the way with the Wednesday group since there are several experienced players in there that I learn from. From this group I figure out how to do this best, where all of my flaws are (there were several) and what I should focus on at the next session.
Week 1:
Monday – we spent half of the hour going through the Turtle Hour of Code map provided by MinecraftEdu. The remainder was spent load testing part of the world by flying around. It was only part of the world but it worked.
Tuesday – Energetic 2nd grade boys! I had these guys load test the entire map by flying around and visiting each area as they wished. They were bummed that they couldn’t get started building right away. I had to test to see if this map was too big or not – the only way to do that is to put 16 kids on it all at once. Success.
Wednesday – more map testing. This time I had the boundaries up to test those. They found holes in it – apparently diagonal lines can be crossed. This was something only my most advanced players would have found and found it they did. Thanks guys!
Week 2:
This week I explained what we were going to be doing and the challenge, formed teams and got players into their designated area. I had each member create their username with a letter that told me which area they belonged to. We then all spawned in a location outside of all other zones – a neutral territory that cannot be collected from and where all of the trading will happen. My co-admin, Kate or I teleported each member to their region where I had an information block with instructions and a chest full of home blocks, maps, turtles and remotes.
Assignment #1 was to pick a home block from the chest and place it down immediately. This allows the players to teleport themselves back to their region if they run out of hunger and die – this will happen a lot. It was a bit clunky getting this going at first but with each session we fine tuned it and ended with an efficient process.
Assignment # 2 – explore your territory.
Assignment # 3 – establish an agreed upon building site
Assignment # 4 – discover your resources
Assignment # 5 – create a list of items you need to get started building
Week 3-4 (and 11-12 weeks to go):
Let the trading begin! A glance at Monday & Wednesday’s group:
At first glance it looks crazy complicated. But as you can see from the clock up there, it only took about 20 minutes to get started. On the board I listed:
Each Team Leader, their region, and the resources they reported finding there.
As a group we raised hands and took votes of which of those resources other people actually need. I boxed those in. With another marker, I asked each of those teams which items they really need to get started and listed those on the board. I then instructed the team leaders to come up, grab a pen and then write next to the items wanted an equal sign and a underlined space with one of those items others want (those boxed-in items) underneath. We quickly had a price list on the board that the team leaders could look at to determine how much of their resources they needed to collect before they could begin trading.
Some conclusions that students came to on their own this week:
- The tree team decided NOT to trade saplings. Everyone wanted saplings but then those other teams wouldn’t need the wood that they have to offer.
- The iron team wanted to trade iron for a trip to the other regions in order to collect water. I told him they could not do that. ‘OOoohh! I can sell iron buckets!’ Iron buckets are required to collect and transport water. Every team will need to do this.
- A member from the diamond team asked if they could trade programs; i.e. could he create code for the other team’s turtles and trade that as a commodity? Of course you can!
- The animal team realized that their animals were crossing the border blocks and going into other territories. They needed to build a barrier, a fence perhaps, but they don’t have wood yet. They began digging down and creating sunken corrals to keep their livestock from getting loose.
- The diamond team realized that they can not give their diamonds away cheaply. Once everyone has all the diamonds they need – they will have nothing else of value to trade. Diamonds are going to be expensive. They must use their turtles to collect the diamonds in their territory first (only way to collect them at this point) before they can go to market and begin trading.
- The food/flower team decided not to sell seeds. They will sell the food they create instead.
- Teams that had ore deposits realized they needed to use their turtles immediately to dig down and collect them. Several started working out their code with nested loops.
I couldn’t be happier at this point. The teams are beginning to gel (each team feels important because of what they have to offer the other areas) and there is a lot of action in here. This has not been a sit-glued-to-the-screen activity. Lots of moving around and working out deals with other players. Several students have asked that I run another turtle coding lesson next week so that they can get better at it. Kids asking and genuinely wanting to learn how to code because of its practical and useful value to them is EXACTLY what I was after by doing all of this so…. woo!
icreatetechclub.com 