Task 4: Investigate the mathematics of a theme park ride, playground ride or toy. Your task is to convince your Principal to buy this ride/toy based on its mathematical concepts.
Dear Mr. Boreham,
My task to to convince you to buy a toy based on its mathematical concepts. I chose Minecraft, because it is very popular, and it has a lot of other educational uses, as well as mathematical concepts. This is a clip of a working scientific calculator, made by a 16 year old boy in Minecraft:
My task to to convince you to buy a toy based on its mathematical concepts. I chose Minecraft, because it is very popular, and it has a lot of other educational uses, as well as mathematical concepts. This is a clip of a working scientific calculator, made by a 16 year old boy in Minecraft:
This a quote from an article about the calculator:
"To be honest, some of us barely have enough time to build a pyramid or towering 8-bit video game character in Minecraft much less a gigantic, functional machine that can be used here in the real world. Yet it's amazing to see these massive projects show up in video demonstrations where players build virtual machines brick by brick, especially from those who can't even legally vote."
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Minecraft-Calculator-Graphing-MaxSGB-Scientific,15109.html
This calculator proves that Minecraft can be used to demonstrate mathematical concepts. However, Minecraft has a lot of other educational benefits for schools, as well as maths.
Another important advantage is that Minecraft is a community and a lot of what happens is determined by that community. Consideration is expected as the community is constantly being supported and aligned with expectations that are central to the community. There are rules and regulations for each server that are to be followed.
Project Mist is an example of a community of students in Tasmania building collaborative worlds. Ms. Donelle Batty and her students Riverside High have produced this clip, explaining how building in Minecraft has created a community with students teaching other students and using a code of conduct for their world:
"To be honest, some of us barely have enough time to build a pyramid or towering 8-bit video game character in Minecraft much less a gigantic, functional machine that can be used here in the real world. Yet it's amazing to see these massive projects show up in video demonstrations where players build virtual machines brick by brick, especially from those who can't even legally vote."
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Minecraft-Calculator-Graphing-MaxSGB-Scientific,15109.html
This calculator proves that Minecraft can be used to demonstrate mathematical concepts. However, Minecraft has a lot of other educational benefits for schools, as well as maths.
Another important advantage is that Minecraft is a community and a lot of what happens is determined by that community. Consideration is expected as the community is constantly being supported and aligned with expectations that are central to the community. There are rules and regulations for each server that are to be followed.
Project Mist is an example of a community of students in Tasmania building collaborative worlds. Ms. Donelle Batty and her students Riverside High have produced this clip, explaining how building in Minecraft has created a community with students teaching other students and using a code of conduct for their world:
Here is another link to an article showing how good Minecraft is for developing teamwork skills in multiplayer worlds:
http://gettingsmart.com/2013/01/how-minecraft-is-teaching-a-generation-about-teamwork-the-environment/
This is a quote from that article I thought explained it well:
"these children must choose to work in teams, despite the fact that being aggressive or selfish may look like the immediately easier option. A house is built faster with four kids working together, and the game becomes a lot easier once night falls (when the monsters appear, furthering its appeal and relevance to an age bracket still scared of the dark) when those four are guarding each other, as well as themselves."
It’s also not a bad way to teach each child about how precious and finite the environment and its resources are. While Minecraft will extend to eight times the earth’s surface area (with each block seen as a metre cubed in real life), all resources are finite. Iron ore does not re-spawn, and neither does coal. Students have the choice of either going further and further out to get resources, or to create sustainable sources of energy and other blocks and items themselves."
Literacy can also be improved by playing Minecraft:
Literacy skills are used in Minecraft and there is a link below about how that works. To quote a piece of information from this article:
“Boys are typically 2 or 3 grades below their reading level. Boys who read push themselves further to read if they read what they are interested in. Online games, such as Minecraft will encourage boys to read.”
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gPbMoFJLdMqoooUrkXE5b3T0rUiLnBgPI6ediMf37G4/edit?pli=1#slide=id.gb7d5b582_098
In conclusion, I hope I have helped to convince you to buy Minecraft for our school.
Yours truly,
Cvon
Sources:
1. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gPbMoFJLdMqoooUrkXE5b3T0rUiLnBgPI6ediMf37G4/edit?pli=1#slide=id.gb7d5b582_098
2. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Minecraft-Calculator-Graphing-MaxSGB-Scientific,15109.html
3. http://gettingsmart.com/2013/01/how-minecraft-is-teaching-a-generation-about-teamwork-the-environment/
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dbak9wjFAAk
http://gettingsmart.com/2013/01/how-minecraft-is-teaching-a-generation-about-teamwork-the-environment/
This is a quote from that article I thought explained it well:
"these children must choose to work in teams, despite the fact that being aggressive or selfish may look like the immediately easier option. A house is built faster with four kids working together, and the game becomes a lot easier once night falls (when the monsters appear, furthering its appeal and relevance to an age bracket still scared of the dark) when those four are guarding each other, as well as themselves."
It’s also not a bad way to teach each child about how precious and finite the environment and its resources are. While Minecraft will extend to eight times the earth’s surface area (with each block seen as a metre cubed in real life), all resources are finite. Iron ore does not re-spawn, and neither does coal. Students have the choice of either going further and further out to get resources, or to create sustainable sources of energy and other blocks and items themselves."
Literacy can also be improved by playing Minecraft:
Literacy skills are used in Minecraft and there is a link below about how that works. To quote a piece of information from this article:
“Boys are typically 2 or 3 grades below their reading level. Boys who read push themselves further to read if they read what they are interested in. Online games, such as Minecraft will encourage boys to read.”
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gPbMoFJLdMqoooUrkXE5b3T0rUiLnBgPI6ediMf37G4/edit?pli=1#slide=id.gb7d5b582_098
In conclusion, I hope I have helped to convince you to buy Minecraft for our school.
Yours truly,
Cvon
Sources:
1. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gPbMoFJLdMqoooUrkXE5b3T0rUiLnBgPI6ediMf37G4/edit?pli=1#slide=id.gb7d5b582_098
2. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Minecraft-Calculator-Graphing-MaxSGB-Scientific,15109.html
3. http://gettingsmart.com/2013/01/how-minecraft-is-teaching-a-generation-about-teamwork-the-environment/
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dbak9wjFAAk