Minecraft Cell Project

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Bob Kahn

The culminating project of the cell unit in 7th grade science at Brentwood School was for students to create a Cell City. The students were require to create a cell city based on a particular theme. The project should contain analogies to the structure and function of the various parts of the cell. These two students choose and UFO analogy for their project, and of course created it in Minecraft. While there are some inconsistencies in the content, I think it is safe to say that the kids did a pretty good job.

Lego Stop Action Madame Curie Video

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Bob Kahn

I know. I know; This was not done in Minecraft but, it is pretty darn cool if you ask me. My students read portions of the book Madame Curie, A Biography and then create a project of some sort to demonstrate their understanding and appreciation for her life and accomplishments. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Madame Curie Adventure Map

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Bob Kahn

My eighth grade science students read Madame Curie: A Biography, written by her daughter Eve Curie. She was the discoverer of radioactivity and the substance radium as well as the only scientist to win two Nobel Prizes in two different fields of science, physics and chemistry. As a final assessment of their knowledge, understanding or appreciation of Marie Curie’s life, students produced scrapbooks, PowerPoint presentations, facebook accounts, and tumblr sites. One student produced a Madame Curie Adventure Map.

“Today, Minecraft Ends!”

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Bob Kahn

Tuesday: Like all good middle schools, we constantly educate our kids on how to be kind to each other. In response to some recent bullying incidences, a teacher produced a wonderful activity for a grade level meeting of 120 students. They shook hands with 10 kids with whom they have never eaten lunch. The activity went beautifully. The whole idea was to foster inclusiveness and acceptance of everybody in our community. The kids felt good and there was a lot of laughter and friendliness. Ten minutes remained, and the teachers opened up the floor to “What’s on your minds?”

There was, of course, the continual commentary on the food. Then one kid, who happens to be a minority, (you’ll see why this is important), said something that some kids chuckled at. He then shouted, “And today, Minecraft ENDS!” The students erupted with applause and laughter. The teachers quieted the group and swiftly pointed out what the boy had just done; he single-handedly undid everything the group had just accomplished. He used his “power” to single out a minority (the geeky kids) to be targeted and picked on. Please read on…

Continue reading →

Spencer’s Lighthouse

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Bob Kahn

He says it’s really not that complicated. I beg to differ. Think of the problem solving and planning that goes into creating something like this.

“Don’t Tease Me Because of My Skin”

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Bob Kahn

The Eaglecraft server’s wings were clipped on Monday because members of the new Exploratory were clashing with members of the previous group. In a nut shell, players were griefing each other and stealing from each other’s chests, and then it got ugly when someone created some bad signage with inappropriate language. Off it went until this was sorted out. So we had a meeting today at lunch for all those students interested in continuing to play on the server. If the didn’t come to the meeting, they would not be playing any more. The meeting was very productive but two comments stuck out in my mind.

1st. One student expressed concern that if we simply played the game as it was meant to be played, pvp in survival, that it would just become like Animal Farm (seventh graders are reading in English) as they collected too much power. A connection to curriculum, cool!

2nd. Another student asked that there be something in the Code of Conduct about not teasing because of the skin he had chosen. Wow! How fitting after having a very effective and accessible first Black History Month Assembly. “Don’t tease me outside of the game because of the skin I chose.” So interesting; and here he gets to choose his skin. In the real world…

Article for School Newsletter

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Bob Kahn

Mechanics and Mysteries of Minecraft in the Middle Division

Playing in the local sandbox as a boy provided a great source of fun for me. Before my mom could even stop the car, the door would fling open, and I’d be running towards the sand. My shoes would fly off and the sand would instantly fill the spaces between my toes. And the building! With molds, buckets and shovels strewn all over the place, my friends and I created whole cities with lakes and rivers. Little plastic characters inhabited our worlds. One day a friend’s little sister decided to hurl a handful of sand into my face. Imagine hundreds of grainy sand particles underneath your eyelids. I spent what seemed like hours in the doctor’s office having the sand removed, grain by grain.

The sand in many of today’s sandboxes cannot get thrown into your face or fill the spaces between your toes. These sandboxes exist in the digital world of your computer or cyberspace. One such digital sandbox is called Minecraft, a game in which players use textured blocks of different materials to build or create anything they can imagine. Anything! Continue reading →

Eaglecraft Community Code of Conduct

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Bob Kahn

Today was the first day with my new Exploratory group on our Eaglecraft server. I tried unsuccessfully to get them to create a mission statement for our server, but they were just not interested. Then I thought about shutting down the server until they created the document. Then I just decided to do it myself. I would be very interested in anyone else’s thoughts about my process and/or my document. Thanks in advance.

Eaglecraft Community Code of Conduct

Eaglecraft is a Minecraft Server run by Middle Division students at Brentwood School. The purpose of this server is for students to have a safe place to play, build and collaborate in Minecraft. Responsible members of this server will respect each other and the rules of the server. Once whitelisted, you become a member of the Eaglecraft community. This means that you agree to:

Respect other players, their belongings, their skins and their builds. This means no raiding or griefing.
Not to use hacks to cheat the game or other players.
Not to use bad language or hurtful words while chatting or on signs.
Not to tease any one based on their appearance in game or how they play.

If a player chooses not to abide by the rules then he or she will be choosing suspension from the server. Abiding by these rules will ensure that all members of the Eaglecraft community feel included and safe to explore the world of Minecraft.

What Did I Do Wrong?

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Bob Kahn

Exploratory Fair

Maybe the picture says it all. Today we had our Exploratory fair for students to sign up for second semester Exploratory class. After being the first to fill up in the fall, I was expecting another full class. I made an announcement that there were spots for 10 boys and 10 girls. No eruption of excitement like last time. Hmm. This is different. I think you can see where this is going. When it was all over, only 6 boys had signed up. What did I do wrong? The good news: these boys know the game and have started their own servers. Maybe it is an opportunity for me to really learn from them and for us to do some incredible creating together instead of simply playing the game. My sails are luffing a bit, but when life gives you lemons….

Girls Learning Minecraft with MinecraftEdu

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Bob Kahn

There were 20 boys in my Exploratory class last semester. The next Exploratory class begins in two weeks and I hope to get some girls to sign up. I have been making references to Minecraft in my science classes this last semester and I heard many girls say things like, “What’s Mindcraft?” “I don’t know anything about Mindcraft.” I think you can see the problem here. So, I announced at assembly that I would offer a training course at lunch the next day for anybody interested in learning the game that was sweeping through our middle school. I knew everyone would forget, so I went around to some lunch tables and encouraged some of my girl students to bring their lunch and come up to the classroom. I think it is very important to get girls involved in technology, and Minecraft is a great way to do this. MinecraftEdu provides an excellent education version with an easy to use tutorial world for students. I watched a video by the Minecraft Teacher called Using MinecraftEdu – Part 1 – Introduction to learn how to set up the server tool; several clicks of the mouse and the server was up and running.

Some of my observations of the girls include: - how engaged they were in the game. - how social they were. - their physical proximity to each other; they preferred to bring the laptops near each other, rather than work separately at the lab stations. Safety in numbers, maybe, while trying something new?

Did I miss anything?

Middle School Minecraft

Imagine the possibilities…