Dr. Guthals here again! I don’t know about you – but something is going on in San Diego with illnesses!!

In any case – a lot of educators are interested in learning how they could use LearnToMod to teach subjects other than coding. Though they are interested in learning to code and/or teaching coding – the school day doesn’t always allow for that.

I’ve been coming up with some ideas and lessons for teaching subjects like Math, History, Spanish, English, and Science using LearnToMod.

What do I mean by “using LearnToMod”?

Basically – I mean that the educator writes a mod that the students then just use in Minecraft. So the students are only learning in a Minecraft environment (not writing code) but the environment that they are in has been modified by code that their teacher wrote in LearnToMod.

You might remember I posted about this last week here. These are the kinds of lessons I’m talking about!

I would love to get more ideas from you all and learn what you’re interested in teaching through Minecraft and LearnToMod, there are a few ways you can contribute to this conversation:

1. Email us at educators@thoughtstem.com and let us know what lessons you want to see built. I can build it and then show you how I did it!
2. Contribute on our online Meetup by joining and then adding to the discussion board here!
3. If you’re in San Diego, come to our Meetup In-Person Events! We have one happening on Monday, August 10th!

What ideas do you have?

Happy Modding!

The post LearnToMod for Educators: Teaching All Subjects with LearnToMod appeared first on LearnToMod.

Dr. Guthals here again today and I want to show you a project that one of our high school volunteers, Christian, made without any assistance! He made this project by working through LearnToMod and knowing a bit about Redstone (which there are lot’s of videos and books on it if you haven’t learned it yet).

I wanted to give you all an example of the amazing problem solving and computer science-y projects that your students could work on! I especially like the idea of having students write a report (like this one) up to describe their process. Communication is a big part of coding – if you can’t communicate what you have done, how will anyone know?

I’ll let him describe:

Finished Product : http://mod.learntomod.com/program_profiles/297590

Background:

I’ve personally always loved working with redstone, I loved the logic and challenge behind it, you can always make a circuit smaller, faster, and quieter, so it makes sense that the first thing I’ve made in LTM is a replication of one of my favorite redstone machines, a number display.  With redstone, the physical aspect of it always made this machine quite large, the need for inverters, gates, and repeaters always made it quite slow, and the piston logic I use in my adders and flip flops make it loud. However, with Blockly, you can make a displayer as small as the display, as fast as the server can handle, and silent.

The Goal:

My goal for this project was simple.  Take a number (less than 100) said in the Minecraft chat and display it on a screen, through blocks.  I separated this goal up into three distinct parts:

1. Turning the number in chat into two numbers, the tens and ones digit.
2. Take the tens and ones digit and turn them from numbers into a picture.
3. Draw the numbers onto a screen.

Part 1: Distinguishing the Digits

Given a two digit number, I have to break it up into the digits in my program.  In order to find the tens digit, I divide the number by 10 and then round it down.  For example, the number 58 would turn into 5.8, and then 5 after I round it, giving me the 10s place.  In order to find the ones digit, I found the remainder of the number divided by 10.  For example, the number 58 over 10 is 5 remainder 8, which is the 1s place.

Part 2: Picturing the Numbers

If you’ve ever made a redstone display, you know that part of the machine with the bunch of torches that converts an integer into the sections of a number.  This is that part.  If you haven’t, which I expect, I have another, more clear way of explaining it.

Everyone (I hope) has seen an older digital clock, you know the ones with the faint 8s with the sections that light up in order to display different numbers? The logic inside of the clock tells it, if you want to display 1, turn on the two right vertical lights and leave the rest off.

If you want to display 0, turn everything on except for the middle band.  This is exactly what I try to do in my program,

First, each display in a clock has 7 sections, two standing up on the left, two standing up on the right, and three horizontal in the middle, so I create a list with 1 repeated 7 times.  In this case, each entry in the list represents one light, the first one represents the middle light, the second represents the top left vertical light, the third represents the top, and it continues this way clockwise around the clock.  In my list, 1 represents ON and 0 represents OFF, so by creating this list that looks like [1,1,1,1,1,1,1], I turn all of the lights on, making an 8.

Thing is, I don’t want to display an 8 all the time!  If the number is a 0, I want to turn off the middle light, or the first number in the list.  Therefore, I set the first number in the list to 0, making the list look like [0,1,1,1,1,1,1].  If the number is a 1, I want to turn off the horizontal lights and the left lights, so I make the list look like [0,0,0,1,1,0,0].

Step 3: Drawing the Pictures

Just like you’d draw a picture with a drone, in my program I have to draw the numbers.  However, I have to draw the numbers with the ‘lights’ in mind, the list of which lights are on and off should determine what the number looks like.

In my program, I make the display really small, just one block per lamp.  When displaying the ones digit, the drone starts at the middle of the entire display.  First, I move it to the middle of the ones number, two right.  Then, I ask if the first digit in the list is 1.  If it is, I destroy the block, and if not I don’t.  Then I move to the second light, one up and one left, ask if the second digit in the list is 1, rinse and repeat until I complete the whole display.  After checking all of the lights, I return the drone to its spot in the middle of the display.

Conclusion:

Patching these sections of code together with some (a ton of) logic, I completed the program.  However, just like how redstone can be improved, so can code.  While writing this post, I realized that the index variable in step 3 is not needed, and may be making my code harder to understand.  There’s always things to touch up, like the disabled debugging blocks, and there’s always a better way to code things.  Also there’s a ton of ways to use this programs in your own programs.  You could use it to display how many mobs are left in your monster arena, or the points each player has earned in spleef.

If you want a little practice, you could stitch together the little blocks of code shown in the post.  The logic, figuring out how to plan a program, is the hardest part of programming and the most essential towards building harder things and tackling larger problems.  The implementation is just practice, and changes between all languages, but the logic always stays the same, even between redstone and Blocky.

Good luck,

Christian

The post LearnToMod for Educators: High School LearnToMod Volunteer Stole the Show! appeared first on LearnToMod.

Dr. Guthals here again! I met Paula on Twitter, talking about using Minecraft in the classroom and she shared with me a wonderful story about how she uses Minecraft to teach Music! I thought it was so amazing that I asked if she could write a guest blog post, which she did (thanks Paula!!). Though she isn’t using LearnToMod (yet) I think this sets up a great precedent for how we can teach a variety of subjects, and I look forward to working with her in the near future on how to incorporate LearnToMod into her teaching too!

Without further introduction, here is Paula:

The Journey to Minecraft Music at High Meadows School

The Minecraft Music Project began simply:

• The majority of my students in grades PS-8 love Minecraft.
• I want them to enjoy learning and gain mastery of the nuts and bolts of music.

Which prompted the question:

• How can I integrate Minecraft into the music curriculum to successfully reach the most students?

The decision to consider using Minecraft as another teaching tool in the music classroom took a leap of faith and a commitment to action through learning.

I needed to learn how to play.

I began attending as many Minecraft in education workshops and sessions as I could find.

They were more scarce three years ago than they are now; and no matter how many I attended, Minecraft in music education was never addressed. When I would ask the presenters at the end of their sessions about utilizing Minecraft as a tool to teach music, they were always vaguely encouraging, but had not heard of teachers using it in music classrooms.

So I took it to my students. 

As a music teacher at an independent school, I teach every child in Pre-school through 8th grade. I polled each of my classes in K-5, and asked them to rank themselves as Minecraft Rock Stars, Experts, or Beginners.

From there I invited individual students to my classroom to teach me about Minecraft in the mornings before school started. They were always excited to be asked, and my true learning began there. Seeing Minecraft through their eyes gave me greater insight into how much they loved the immersive creativity.

Working one-on-one with students in different grade levels, asking them to be the teacher, and putting no parameters on what they chose to teach me in Minecraft broke down barriers with students who had sometimes posed challenges in music classes. The new relationships and trust forged with children who weren’t always successful in music was the ultimate tipping point.

Minecraft is a tool that I can use to not only teach music, but to break down barriers, build relationships, unleash creativity, and inspire collaborative learning and growth.

But how do I use it to teach Music?

Although my research regarding how to authentically incorporate Minecraft into the music curriculum continued by searching the internet, Twitter, social media, conventions, sessions, workshops…..anything I could think of to discover the answer; I came up with nothing.

So I took it to my students.

I invited a diverse range of students in grades K-7 to attend two before-school sessions to determine if:

• there was interest;
• there was purpose;
• there was something to teach and be learned using Minecraft in music!

A resounding “DEFINITELY” to all three questions resulted.

One hundred percent of the children invited to participate (45) scrambled through the music room doors at 7:15AM on two separate mornings to explore ways to teach music using Minecraft.

Two unexpected positive outcomes:

1. The parents were also excited and on board about the opportunity for their children.
2. The requirement that all children had to provide their own devices with Minecraft PE installed to participate went smoothly.

Experimental Build: Round 1

Day 1’s build was to create 16 counts of music using whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, or eighth notes; all skills that were being taught across grade levels.

Needles to say, amazing creations were developed. Teaching music with Minecraft was going to be a success.

But the most exciting and convincing aspect of Round 1 was to witness the multi-age learning, enthusiasm, passion, and FUN in the room. To see first graders working and laughing and learning alongside 5th graders; 2nd graders teaching 4th graders; all of them teaching me!

The inspiration and beauty in the room on that morning of passionate, ageless, excited collaboration and learning was a testament to student-directed, constructivist learning.

And they were all learning and sharing so much more than music and Minecraft…

Some students created and thought about music in ways I would have never imagined, which gave me insight into how their minds worked and how I might best reach them and others. Not to mention new ways of looking at and teaching music after 21 years in the classroom!   

Experimental Build: Round 2

Day 2 the following week presented the same group of students, parents, devices, and EXCITEMENT!

The build was to create a music staff and write the notes on each of the lines and spaces.

The imaginative creations and collaborations continued, and I had no doubts regarding the value of incorporating Minecraft as a teaching tool in music.

NEXT STEPS

After the two experimental builds, I launched a 4 week before-school Minecraft Music Project.

I wanted to extend the initial ideas the students had created and work with some new ones to  develop another aspect of the curriculum that would be more developmentally appropriate for even the youngest students, such as identifying instruments within instrument families.

Sixty-five students in grades PS-5 participated, which was roughly 85% of those eligible.

The same operating framework as the experimental builds: students arrive by 7:30AM, bring their own devices or notebooks charged and with Minecraft PE or Minecraft loaded, collaborate, build, and have fun.

With so many students, I quickly identified 5 student leaders and utilized them as Minecraft Masters.

My co-teacher and I sent Minecraft questions to those 5 students, and we handled the music questions as they arose. It worked beautifully.

The builds over those four session included:

1. Rhythms (whole, half, quarter, eighth, and rests).
2. Pitches on the staff, crescendos and decrescendos, and dynamics (p, mf, f, ff).
3. Families of instruments: Build an instrument from the string and the woodwind family.
4. Families of instruments: Build an instrument from the percussion and the brass family.

Each of those builds covered curriculum the students were currently studying, had studied, or would study in music class. Again, my objective from a purely curriculum development standpoint was to pursue the possibilities of incorporating Minecraft into the music curriculum in authentic and developmentally appropriate ways.

TAKE AWAYS

1. Students have so much to offer. Take the risk to include them in the process. Let them teach you and teach others when possible. 
2. Keep searching. We owe it to our students to involve them in ways they can grow and develop to their fullest. Don’t let your fears or lack of knowledge hold them back.
3. Do it yourself. We’re all working together to create the best possible learning environments for our students and with our students. What they need may not be out there yet. Don’t be afraid to be the pioneer and make it happen; your students deserve it.
4. Trust. You’ve got to trust that you know what your students need. Don’t be afraid to do whatever YOU have to do to give them the opportunities you know will benefit them. Whether that’s making yourself vulnerable enough to ask for help from peers, colleagues, or students, learning new skills or tools in the multitudinous ways that are now available for all of us to learn, or standing up against push-back when you know you have the children’s best interests at hand. Trust yourself.
5. Take Action. Don’t wait. Your kids can’t wait. They need you to be a guide to finding their passion, their path, their joy, and ultimately themselves.

The Minecraft in Music Project has launched; and my students designed it alongside their teachers. Without them, it would not exist. 

Paula Williams

Music Director, High Meadows School, Roswell, GA

@paulamichele84

The post LearnToMod for Educators: Guest Blog by Paula Williams appeared first on LearnToMod.

Dr. Guthals here again! Today I wanted to share with you the STEM Exhibits Minecraft World that I made to showcase some basic STEM concepts that you could teach with the help of Minecraft!

Check it out in the video here (which also explains how to put it in your version of Minecraft!):

ARVE Error: no id set

You can download the file here.

It has been a fantastic couple weeks in Philadelphia and London and I can’t wait to head to CSTA on Saturday. If you’re headed there, please reach out on my Twitter @sarahguthals so we can meet up and we can discuss potential collaborations, or even if you’re just interested in seeing what this whole Minecraft in Education thing is all about!

Happy Modding!

The post Minecraft Modding for Educators: STEM Exhibits World appeared first on LearnToMod.

Dr. Guthals here again!

The past month I have been working on a workshop to introduce educators to the world of teaching STEM with Minecraft. This is without LearnToMod specifically, but still very related because everything you can do here you can then expand into LearnToMod in fun ways.

Since Minecraft is all block based, one simple lesson to integrate into the game is Area, Perimeter, and Volume. For example, you could build a world where three signs give the formulas:

And then you could have a couple examples:

And then you could have one where the students have to figure it out:

This video shows this world in a bit more detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RfXA-9vlQU&feature=youtu.be

Do you have thoughts on how this could be used to teach other Math concepts? Build worlds, comment below, tweet about it #teachstem #teachcs @learntomod We would love to see your examples!

Happy Modding!

The post Minecraft Modding For Educators: Using Minecraft in the Classroom to Teach Math appeared first on LearnToMod.

Dr. Guthals here!

Recently I have been running workshops on how to use Minecraft in the classroom, not only for modding, but to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) in general. One really powerful tool in Minecraft is Redstone.

A lot of people have done some pretty incredible things with Redstone, but I have a challenge for you!

First, make this in Minecraft:

Then, using only these items:

• Redstone
• Redstone Block
• Redstone Torch
• Switch
• Stone Pressure Plate
• Button

Can you find a way to make:

1. The lamp in the blue box only be able to turn on for a couple seconds at a time
2. The lamps in the orange box be able to turn on and turn off
3. The lamps in the yellow box be on always

You can’t change the arrangement of the Redstone Lamps, and you don’t have to use all of the items listed above.

Comment below with:

• What grade/age you teach
• What you think this teaches (learning goal)
• If you know the standard this teaches (common core/next gen science)
• Comments about the activity
• Similar activities you might find useful

Happy Modding!

Dr. Guthals

The post LearnToMod for Educators: Using Minecraft in the Classroom to teach circuits appeared first on LearnToMod.

Have you been hearing about Minecraft from your students? Are you interested to find out what it is, why it’s so popular, and how you might be able to use it to teach STEM subjects in K-12 courses?

ThoughtSTEM is working with Microsoft to introduce teachers to the world of Minecraft in Education and we’re offering a sneak peak into the first workshop on this topic offered by us!

The workshop will be 1.5 hours long, held at ThoughtSTEM’s offices in Kearny Mesa, San Diego, CA. There is no cost to attend, however space is limited to the first 15 teachers to apply for the workshop.

The post LearnToMod for Educators: Free Minecraft Workshop in San Diego appeared first on LearnToMod.

Today I wanted to show you how to get your students making a simple Javascript Mod.

As always, when using a new language or application it is good to start with the Hello, World! program (where you make the computer print/say “Hello, World!”).

To start, have your students click on Mod at the top of the homepage and create a new mod called “Simple_Javascript_Mod” choosing   as the language:

The tile for this mod will appear, your students should click it to open the mod:

Then click on the </> Code button:

Now they should see a blank Javascript file:

But what to write? I like to tell my students to look at mods that they have already written in Blockly and use those as a starting place.

In a separate tab, your students should go to the LearnToMod badges (under the Learn tab) and choose the Saying Hello badge under Learning To Program->Functions:

If they haven’t already, have them complete the code:

Then, they should click on the  button at the bottom-middle part of their screen:

They should see the Javascript for this blockly code:

From here, it is fairly obvious which block is associated with which line of code.

One suggested unplugged activity is to print out blocks and Javascript codes and have the students match them up!

Tell your students you want them to write the following code in Javascript:

The solution is this:

Common Mistakes to Watch out For

When you move your students to writing textual-based code (vs. block-based) there are a number of things that can go wrong. Here are a few to watch out for:

1. Spelling – Students have to spell everything exactly right to get it to work. ‘Hello, World!’ can be misspelled, but if anything else is misspelled then the code will not work.
2. Curly Braces – Functions (like main) need to have curly braces {} around the code that is meant to be inside the function. In Blockly the block wraps around everything, in Javascript the curly braces wrap around everything.
3. Spacing– In Javascript, the spacing is very important. Notice that there are no spaces between “me” and the “.” (above), and there are no spaces between the word sendMessage.
4. Semi-Colon – In Javascript, any line of code that isn’t a curly brace or a function must end in a semi-colon. This tells the computer that you are done with that line and are moving on to the next (like a period in sentences).

Do you have ideas for integrating Javascript into your LearnToMod classroom? Tweet at us about it @LearnToMod with the hashtag #teachcs.

Happy Modding!

Dr. Guthals

The post LearnToMod for Educators: Making Javascript Mods appeared first on LearnToMod.

This is Carlos once again, and today we will be going over how students can add their classmates to a single private LearnToMod server.

In order to do so, they will need to do the following steps:

1. Connect to LearnToMod.
2. Enter their Private server.
3. Open a server by performing command “/open”.
4. Share server number with classmates.
5. Have their classmates join by performing “/join##” command in the server lobby.

Accessing the Server

Students must have their Minecraft account connected with the software in order to access the server. Students who have not connected their Minecraft account or added the LearnToMod server to Minecraft can follow the instructions in the first “Minecraft Connect” badge to get set up. If students have received access to LearnToMod through a class key, please check one of our previous posts ,“Giving Students Access to the LearnToMod Server”, for more information.

Entering Server

All LearnToMod accounts have their very own private server where players can run the mods they have created. A player can enter their private server at any time by selecting “multiplayer” at the Minecraft home screen:

and then joining the LearnToMod server (see Minecraft Connect badge if you don’t have the LearnToMod server option yet):

Players will be taken to be taken to the main server lobby where they will wait for a private server to load. The amount of time they will wait depends on the amount of traffic on the server.

Opening Server and Adding Classmates

Before other players can join the server, that server needs to be opened by the owner (we’ll call the owner of the server student #1). As the owner of the server, student #1 can give open access to the server by typing the command “/open” on Minecraft and pressing enter.

After opening the server, a message will come up with the server status and number:

The other classmates (i.e. student #2 – #4) that want to join should now connect to the LearnToMod server. They will be able to join the server by running the “join/##” (replace “##” with your server number) command in server lobby. The command message below will join the server we opened in the previous image:

Nota Bene: If the classmates (student #2 – #4) have their own LearnToMod accounts that are currently connected to the Minecraft account they are using, they may find that they are transported to their own private server before having time to type in /join ## in the server lobby. For this reason, sometimes it’s easier for classmates joining student #1’s server to first go to the mod.learntomod.com homepage and disconnect their Minecraft account before joining student #1’s server.  They can reconnect to their Minecraft account after they’ve joined their friend’s server, but this will give them ample time in the server lobby to run the /join ## command.

Another note: If the server is not opened by the owner, those trying to join will receive the following error message:

Limits

Having 4 students per server is the recommended limit, but the hard limit is 10. The servers aren’t designed to hold anything more than 4 players in one server, so any extra players will cause a significant amount of lag (delay) which can really affect gameplay.

Video

The following video goes over what we covered in this blog post:

https://youtu.be/ecvxGt_CP6g

Feedback From You!

Was this helpful? Fill out this short, 5-minute survey and give us some feedback!

The post LearnToMod for Educators: Having Students Work in Groups on LearnToMod Servers appeared first on LearnToMod.

Carlos once again! This time with a fun way to make art with LearnToMod!

What is pixel art?

Pixel art is something that has become very popular in Minecraft. A player can create basically anything by placing enough blocks in the correct manner. Because the world of Minecraft is made up of only cubes, anything created will have an old arcade game look to it. Minecraft players from all over the world have taken the challenge of creating structures of their favorite TV characters in the video game.

It might be tedious to create a huge statue one block at a time, students have the advantage of programming drones in LearnToMod which really speeds up the process. The students will need to know how to trace the drone very accurately, look at our previous post “Where is that Drone?” for more details.

Students at all skill levels can take part in making pixel art. It is recommended to start with a simple two-dimensional creation, like the image below:

Once comfortable with the structure, add detail and depth like the image below:

Deciding what to build

Pixel art is a great activity for students who want to practice using drones, and it can be a challenge for advanced students when they have run out of things to build. They can create their favorite characters in pixel art or make their own.

Students can also find pixel art on Google and recreate it on LearnToMod using drones. There are many websites that provide templates and ideas for pixel art creations, such as minecraftpixelarttemplates.com.

Drafting Art

The position of every block is very important in this type of project, which is why it’s such a great idea to make a draft before starting to code.

Graph paper can be very helpful for making custom drafts. Students can treat each square as a block in Minecraft. They can draw the image they like and then fill in the square around it to give it the shape it will take in Minecraft. Start simple, then add detail.

Drafting on a website can be a faster to work with. Editing color and deleting blocks is much easier when done online. There are lots of websites that provide a canvas to create pixel art. I like to use piskel which is illustrated below.

Making the art piece

Once the draft is done, it’s time to start writing the code. Choose block as a starting point in the draft, usually one of the bottom edges is the best starting point. The next step is to program the Drone to place blocks where needed.

For simple two-dimensional creations, a single Drone can be programmed to place all of the blocks in the right place one row at a time using a printer type pattern. The Drone would only move in horizontal or vertical lines placing a block where needed.

For larger projects, it is a good idea break up the part of your creation and use different drones to put them together. This way a single Drone doesn’t have to be traced through hundreds of commands and the code will be easier to debug.

Practice Makes Perfect

Pixel art can be simple or it can be taken into an intense level of creativity. It is important to start simple then add details in the end. As more blocks are used and the structure increases in size, the art piece will begin to lose its pixelated effect. Take a previous a project idea and make it your own!

How have you used pixel art? Fill out this short, 5-minute survey and give us some feedback!

The post LearnToMod for Educators: Pixel Art appeared first on LearnToMod.