Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Minecraft in Maths - Geometry

"If a child can't learn the way we teach, we should teach the way they learn."

Teaching the way the students in Room 8 love to learn. We have tapped into their passion and enthusiasm for Minecraft. Our current Geometry unit has lent itself nicely to rotation, reflection and tessellation of the blocks in the Minecraft environment. 

The kids have created shapes and signs with instructions for a buddy to either rotate, translate or reflect. Having to learn each concept first was a piece of cake because they just wanted to get on with the constructing in Minecraft. So concepts sink in quickly or are leant much faster. 

What I saw - full engagement from all students, quicker understanding of the concepts, collaboration and concentration to complete the task and do the assigned work, better understanding, sharing of their knowledge with their peers and all students having success.

The students were also able to share what they had learnt visually to the whole class. Talk about what they had done and look at what others had achieved as well. 

Tessellation - Repeating patterns that can fill a wall or floor area.

Rotating a shape through a turn.

Signs used for instructions as well as peer reviewing and marking.

Quarter turn Anticlockwise.

Half turn.

Quarter turn clockwise.

Tessellation using 1 shape that has been rotated to fill a wall.



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