8-10 yrs old
11-13 yrs old
Animals
Science
Using Minecraft, students will create a bird-attracting garden. This is part of a broader "living world" science unit of work.
June 21, 2018
Students should be able to include a variety of features in their garden which will allow a bird to survive such as; a bird bath, bird house, plants of varying sizes, a fence to keep out predators etc.
Students should consider the adaptations of the particular birds they are trying to attract and design their garden based on these adaptations. For example, if the students were wanting to attract an eagle, they would need to include other small animals in their garden to ensure the eagles would be attracted to a food source.
Students should include a description of their garden on a sign-post created in their world. They should include their design decisions and the justification for these decisions.
What will be providing the birds with a food source?
What will provide the birds with a water source?
What will provide the birds shelter?
Will there be any protection available in your garden?
What information would be important to include in your signage?
What types of tools will you need to construct your garden?
What resources will you need?
Can you design it to scale?
Would your design be feasible to implement in reality? What about the school setting?
Students will mine for the appropriate resources to develop their garden.
They will need to create the necessary tools in order to construct it.
Students will make a variety of design decisions and will need to justify these decisions.
Students will explain their designs using their sign-posts embedded in their garden.
Students will need to consider the needs of the living things they will feature in the garden as well as their adaptations.
Students will need to consider the scale of their design and practicality of it.
Expectations will differ for students based on their level of understanding and time frame allowed for the lesson. A high achieving student group may be able to produce a garden which meets all design criteria and use innovation and creativity to complete it. They will have strong justifications as to their decision making and would have used a large variety of tools and resources to complete the task. The written component on sign-posts will be in depth and explain and justify all aspects of the garden.
A student working in minimal time constraints, or even at a lower grade level could still complete the task and have it align with the "living world" Science outcome. Students may simply need to include all necessary components to sustain life for a living thing. The variety of resources and tools used in the Minecraft world would be lower and explanations on sign-posts would be simple but effective.
Regardless of their level, students should be able to complete the task to a degree where the "living world" outcome is achieved in the Science syllabus.