Welcome to the Animal Research Center a place where students can learn all about animals in different habitats (biomes) and the challenges they face. Students will go out into the field to interact and learn more about wild animals. But before that, students will familiarize themselves with all the tools they have at their disposal.
Learn basic navigation in Minecraft: Education Edition using a keyboard, mouse, and the WASD keys
Become familiar with the interface of the game and MakeCode
Be introduced to their Agent and the basic Agent moves using the MakeCode interface
CSTA standards coverage: 1A-AP-11, 1A-AP-08. ISTE standards coverage: 5C, 5D
We are continuing our work with the Animal Research Center (ARC) and going on our first assignment to the Galapagos Islands. We have received reports of tourists entering the nearby turtle nesting ground. We need to see if the reports are true and investigate the area for damage. Less than 1% of baby turtles make it to maturity. The slightest disruption of the local ecosystem can reduce that number even further. By utilizing the skills, we learned with our Agent we are going to make necessary repairs and clean up the area.
By the end of Lesson 2 the students will have learned about the concepts of Pattern Recognition, Algorithms, Sequencing, and Loops
CSTA standards coverage: 1A-AP-08, 1A-AP-09, 1A-AP-10, 1A-AP-11, 1A-AP-12, 1A-AP-14, 1B-AP-08, 1B-AP-10, 1B-AP-11.
ISTE standards coverage: 3D, 4A, 5C
We are continuing in our work with the Animal Research Center (ARC). We are in the Arctic to investigate reports of a baby polar bear that has been separated from its family. Rising glacial temperatures are causing more and more of the arctic to melt away, causing the life of the polar bear to be much more difficult due to lack of ice to live on and dwindling food supplies.
Develop programs with sequences and simple loops, to express ideas or address a problem
Decompose (break down) the steps needed to solve a problem into a precise sequence of instructions
Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals
CSTA standards coverage: 1A-AP-09, 1A-AP-10, 1A-AP-11, 1A-AP-12, 1A-AP-14, 1B-AP-08, 1B-AP-10, 1B-AP-11
ISTE standards coverage: 3D, 4A, 5C
One of our responsibilities with the Animal Research Center (ARC) is to help animals find safe places to live. A panda recently wandered into a town and refuses to leave. As the town expands, it’s encroaching on the panda’s natural habitat. We need to coax the panda out of town, relocate it, and protect its new habitat.
Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals
Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate
Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process
CSTA standards coverage: 1A-AP-09, 1A-AP-12, 1A-AP-14, 1B-AP-08, 1B-AP-10, 1B-AP-11
ISTE standards coverage: 3D, 4A, 5C
Part of our responsibilities as members of ARC is to try to correct misinformation about animals. That misinformation and lack of understanding has really hurt the gray wolf population. People have hunted gray wolves for years out of fear. And as progress infringes on more of their habitat, we need to help humans understand wolves better to lessen the confrontations.
Model the way programs store and manipulate data by using numbers or other symbols to represent information. 1A-AP-09
Develop plans that describe a sequence of events, goals, and expected outcomes. 1A-AP-12
Debug, (identify and fix) errors in an algorithm or program that includes sequences and simple loops. 1A-AP-14
Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate. 1B-AP-08
Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals. 1B-AP-10
The concepts taught at the ARC are now reinforced at the Space Centre. Students have to cross multiple planets to dig and collect samples from the different planets.
Using the skills introduced to in Lesson 1, students need to utilize the Agent to collect samples from Mercury and Venus using the While Loop, Agent Inspect, Agent Detect, and the If/Else Conditional.
1A-AP-12: Develop plans that describe a sequence of events, goals, and expected outcomes.
1B-AP-10: Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
1B-AP-11: Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process.
Follow coding instructions to solve puzzles without usual visual Minecraft support
Reinforce the use of operators
Reinforce using conditionals and while loops
Combine using AGENT DETECT and AGENT INSPECT blocks
The focus of this lesson is debugging. Inform the students that it is important to understand that mistakes do happen, and it is important to find where the mistakes are, so the code runs properly. This will require persistence and attention to detail. These are the skills that will continue to be of benefit to the students as they move through their school career.
Use debugging process effectively
Learn how to exercise persistence and attention to detail while solving coding puzzles
This lesson will be focusing on learning the concepts of Booleans, Operators, and how they work in Conditionals. We have been working with Conditionals for the past three lessons, where based upon what the Agent Detect or Inspects the Agent will perform a certain action.
This lesson will focus on Boolean (logic) Operators and using those within Conditionals. Boolean operators take Boolean inputs and evaluate to a Boolean output: disjunction A or B. A or B evaluates to true if either A is true or B is true or if both A and B are true.
In Block 3 students will be exploring creativity in coding. Over the past two blocks students have learned many coding principles and learned how to use code to accomplish goals in the lessons. Throughout those lessons it was reiterated that there may be more than one solution to an activity. This block will allow students to explore that autonomy. These activities will either be student validated (the student achieves the objective successfully) or world validated (the student uses a specific code and/or block that lets the game know the objective is achieved). This block is to teach students to be creative with coding, persevere, problem solve, and try new things.
While testing our latest time travelling device, we’re stuck in a time loop. This loop is sending us to random times. We must use our coding powers to overcome the obstacles and find our way to the time gate.
Debug, (identify and fix) errors in an algorithm or program that includes sequences and simple loops. 1A-AP-14
Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate. 1B-AP-08
Create programs that use variables to store and modify data. 1B-AP-09
Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals. 1B-AP-10
Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process. 1B-AP-1
Students will need to overcome coding challenges getting to the Time Travelling Device, investigating and becoming more familiar with Event Handlers.
Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals. 1B-AP-10
Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process. 1B-AP-11
Students create an app to build some columns in Ancient Rome. We didn't have to do anything super fancy but we did to use the tools we know in such a way that the acqueducts were built for us.
Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate. 1B-AP-08
Create programs that use variables to store and modify data. 1B-AP-09
Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals. 1B-AP-10
Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process. 1B-AP-11
Test and debug (identify and fix errors) a program or algorithm to ensure it runs as intended. 1B-AP-15
Students will be investigating and becoming more familiar with utilizing all the skills they have been learning about in this course. We are going to the American frontier circa 1850. The gold rush is in full swing, and small mining towns are popping up all over the west.In this lesson we are continuing to work with Events, Variables and Nested Loops. We are giving the guidelines and suggesting a way the objective can be achieved. Students need to put all these concepts together to come up with the best way to solve the challenges presented.
Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate. 1B-AP-08
Create programs that use variables to store and modify data. 1B-AP-09
Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals. 1B-AP-10
Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process. 1B-AP-11
Test and debug (identify and fix errors) a program or algorithm to ensure it runs as intended. 1B-AP-15
