Recently, Mrs. Yollis' class has become a BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) room. During our geometry math unit, students were building in Minecraft.
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Guest Post by Shayna
During math, students were allowed to make solid figures on Minecraft. First I made a cube, and then set my goal to make a square-base pyramid with five flat faces. However, there was a problem. In Minecraft, it will not let you tilt a single cube, so I could not get the flat triangular faces I wanted. I ended up with a stair-step square-base pyramid.
As I was building it, Mrs. Yollis mentioned that it was hard to count how many cubes were on each level because they were all one color. She recommended that I make each cubic unit a different color, so the other classmates could count how many were in each layer.
I started out with three colors, diamond, iron, and lapid lazuli. Then when I was almost done, two of the same colors were side by side making it difficult to count. So, I tried adding a fourth color, black obsidian. It worked!
I took these pictures as I got closer to being done. When I finished I took a final screen shot. My pyramid had seven layers.
As you can see, I am starting to color each layer. The top cube is diamond colored.
The top layer is one cubic unit.
The second layer is a 3 x 3 = 9 cubic units.
The third layer is a 5 x 5 = 25 cubic units.
The top layer is one cubic unit.
The second layer is a 3 x 3 = 9 cubic units.
The third layer is a 5 x 5 = 25 cubic units.
The fourth layer is a 7 x 7 = 49 cubic units.
The fifth layer is 9 x 9 = 81 cubic units.
The fifth layer is 9 x 9 = 81 cubic units.
How does the pattern continue?
What is the volume of my pyramid?
What is the volume of my pyramid?
We noticed that the even square numbers (2 x2 and 4 x 4) were skipped.
In Minecraft, each square face must line up with another square face. That was the reason I could NOT build the pyramid on the right.
Have you ever built a solid figure in Mincraft?
Your pupil,
Shayna
Dear Shayna & Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWhat marvelous Minecraft math! I have made some solid figures in minecraft. I have experimented with a cube, rectangular prism, and a square based prymid. Other times I will just fool around in Survival. One of my best worlds was when I used a rectangular prism as my house! All I had to do was build it, make a door, some steps, and eureka! I had a house.
In the world Survival, creepers figured out a way to get in to my cube house, but thankfully I had a iron sword handy. I think Minecraft is a great way to learn and it's a great way to be creative. When I built my cube house, I made it out of coal. It was a pretty harsh Survival world too. Sadly I accidently deleted both my good minecraft worlds mistaking them for others. Here's a tip: Do not label all of your worlds "My World". It is very hard to tell the difference :-)!
I have not brought my own device yet, but I hope to closer to the end of the year. I am looking forward to learning on my technology.
I think the volume of your square based pyramid is 169 square units. Am I correct? You add 9+25=39+49+81=130. Mrs. Yollis has two posts about Minecraft on her 365 blog.
I hope we get to do minecraft in class sometime again!
Warmly,
Peter
Dear Shayna,
ReplyDeleteI love to play Minecraft because it is fun to know how to survive in it and in the real world. I think you use it in a creative way. I have the Xbox 360version. How long did it take to build your square based pyramid?
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Dear Shayna,
ReplyDeleteThat is very creative. My favorite game is Minecraft because you build houses, mine, get gold, and have armor! I have the Xbox 360 and I have live. On that there are Endermens! Oh no!
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