City Planning

8-10 yrs old

11-13 yrs old

Geography

Government and Politics

Science

If we could build an ideal city, what would be in the city plans? What is important today? What is of value.

Submitted By: Minecraft Education

October 25, 2016

Lesson Plan
My Notes

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Skills

Citizenship
Collaboration
Critical Thinking

Learning Objectives

Students will use Creative mode to build a replica of existing land in order to improve upon it in Minecraft

Guiding Ideas

Mini-Lesson (whole class)

Minecraft uses a consistent scale where 1 block is equal to 1 meter. You can determine the area of your city area by using official maps to determine how many square meters encompasses the space you plan to modify. Users can redesign in Minecraft but it needs to adhere to existing city parameters.

Here is an example in Denmark: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/minecraft-players-can-now-explore-denmark-1.2622403.

Internationally, non-profits like Block, http://blockbyblock.org/ are helping people rebrand or improve their city.

Before you begin:
o    Ask students some questions about this activity.
•     Why are users turning to Minecraft to build?
•     There are even businesses out there who will charge to design a property in Minecraft. What is the lure for these international businesses?
o    There are some perks to building in Minecraft using Redstone that you won’t get with a tool like Sketch-Up (you can direct the camera and do things like turn in switches to operate light rail cars, turn on solar panels, and animate with models).

Student Activities

Implementation for your class:

Classroom Management:
•     Instead of the you, the facilitator, determining rules let the students create working rules for their build.
•    With established rules like leaving another build alone, students will do their own policing.
•    Often too, rules which students create will also out them into the seat of leading.
•     Logistics like how many in a team, how many class sessions, final product presentation and scale will be some ideas to determine before presenting to the class.
•     Do you want buy in from the community?
•    Do you want this project to gain footing? Get city planners, architects, engineers to come and present some of their work and restrictions.
•    Will this final project be part of a district or city presentation?
•    Is this a contest between the teams or a collaboration for the city?
Questions for you to consider before project implementation :
•     Try Design Thinking and have student teams create an approved model before they even open Minecraft.
•     They can choose local products to lower cost and use less resources for transporting. Will they repurpose resources like wood floors, doors, lavatories?
•     What are some key decisions you want students to make?
•     Will they be rebuilding a block of your city?
•     Will they be rebuilding one building?
•     What do you consider a complete project?
•    Will you want estimates of cost?
•    Do you want students to present in person or do you want them to podcast their design presentation as a team?
Wrap-Up
Minecraft allows for a spatially accurate redesign or repurposing of local community space.
- How does this tool allow you to see the future?
- Are there some things you would like to see in this city?
- What careers would be most closely connected with this activity?
Extension: Research best planned cities like Dubai or Seoul.
- How did government determine the best solutions?
- What are some current improvements?
- What might the future hold for future planners?

Performance Expectations

Evidence of Learning
• Students should have a working simulation of their model. A current map should be part of presenting along with a description of what they changed and the design process that went into the redesign. Let students describe what they changed and why the team decided this design was the most viable or logical.