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hi everyone it's me Lauren staer and I'm
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excited to give you guys a tour of my
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Minecraft world titled volume city which
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I designed to teach fifth grade students
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how to calculate and apply the concept
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of volume in a fun and Hands-On way so
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the
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object the objective of this lesson is
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for students to create various
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structures in Minecraft while
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calculating the volume of their designs
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through this activity students practice
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using volume formula length times width
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time height and apply their knowledge by
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constructing buildings that represent
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real world
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structures so let's start with what I
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built we're going to start with the
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entrance actually to volume City so I
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just made like a little structure here
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as like the
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Gateway um so this is the entrance it's
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got a little welcome flag saying make
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sure to check out the city
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hall um I'll actually show you the whole
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um how huge this build was um including
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like the different things so this is a
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300 by 300 fenon area to define the
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boundaries of the city so you'll see
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there are little um there is the fencing
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area you'll see the um five block
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wide um road that is around the inside
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edges of the fenced in area or where the
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city is
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sitting running along the perimeter with
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a Central Road
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dividing the six available building
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plots in the middle here so it's this
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huge Middle Road that's lit
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up each plot or the boxed in area so
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there's different there's three
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different boxes on this side and three
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on this side each box in area is a 90 by
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135
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block um cubic units to the left of the
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entrance so if I go back down let me
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fall down here for a little
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bit is the mayor's house so along with
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building the city the students are going
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to be um kind of role playing as
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Builders and I'm going to be the mayor
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of the city so this is actually the
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mayor's house and I also gave a little
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bit of information that says the frame
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of the house is 11x 10 by um 11 by 4X 10
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sorry cubic units so if the students
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want to compare that to their own builds
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later in the day they can easily look at
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it um I also included a little fun
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activity I said not including the roof
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that is and it's bonus for students who
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figure that
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out so this is the Mar's house that I
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created
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um and I gave you the dimensions
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earlier as you can see you can go on in
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and it's actually um fully designed with
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the library and there's the chimney goes
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up
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through and this is the area so the
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students can look at different building
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techniques that I used see if they want
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to add them like the um
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window um attachments using like the
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trap doors and stuff so they can do that
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um for design they can also look at how
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I
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built the
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chimney different things like that for
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after they've built their um
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buildings moving
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on um so I so I told you about the sign
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Dimensions um at the opposite end so way
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on the other side of the city so going
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through the entrance there's our little
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lamp post so that it's not dark because
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I did put it as um a day and night cycle
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because I wanted it to be an actual City
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not just like an empty empty space um as
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we go quickly through the main
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road and get a little glimpse of that
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I'll be talking about each of the areas
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in a little bit but I'm just going to
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kind of zoom on over to the City
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Hall so at the opposite end of the city
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I built a city hall which serves as the
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central
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Hub um inside the city hall we'll go
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inside first then I'll talk about like
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the different things on the outside so
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now we're
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here go
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inside um there is a small Museum over
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here it's not very well lit up I'll have
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to add that later but this is the help
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desk this is the most important part of
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it um where students will come once they
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have their assignment I'll be the one
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sitting here cuz I will be the mayor I'm
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going to
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um work like here so when students come
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in through the door they can see me ask
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me questions different things like that
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um other than the help desk and the
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museum there's this huge library that
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they can um just chill at and I created
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different water feature to show that it
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is possible for my students to make it
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um it's just a basic one it's not very
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very crafty and then there's also like a
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lounge area so the kids can like see
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what it is or they can discuss things
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with their groups here so this is kind
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of just like a catchall where students
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can come ask me questions they can hang
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out at the museum at the little um rest
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areas they can talk and come up with
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ideas if they don't want to do it at the
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build
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sites
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um uh just outside of the city hall it's
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take a little bit of a journey I'll
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close the door cuz that's a little odd I
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forgot to close it before um this isn't
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very well lit up I just noticed that uh
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let me see put
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a we'll put one out here for now I will
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do something better with it
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later obviously beforehand um this is
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the job board so it's obviously it says
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see help ask for details so it's another
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reminder for
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students um the job board is just
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listing all six of the available
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projects the students can choose from
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cuz I wanted to make this like a bit
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more like roleplay so I obviously got
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like different signs for all of the
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areas so the first one is the post
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office I and I gave a little joke like
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please hurry up there's too much mail
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there's the pool
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area the doctor's
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office the
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School the library and to create a store
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so they'll come over here all the
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students will gather over here they'll
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look at the um job board they'll split
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into groups and then they will come back
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over to the help desk and ask me
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questions and also to team up I'll have
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a book that I can write in that will go
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for each of the groups and I'll keep
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that there at the help desk as a
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reminder to so it'll be um a little bit
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more interesting students can use that
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as like a writing time and um different
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Communications and stuff like
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that so after we go through the job
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boards um what else what else what else
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I had other things let me
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see um so this AC sorry this
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activity um connects to the lesson
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objectives by allowing students to apply
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the volume formula as they're creating
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it their
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buildings um to real world structures
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like a doctor's office post office
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libraries they can work
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collaborative collaboratively or
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independently to design and build their
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structures I have 12
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students so and there's six spots they
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can easily do groups of three groups of
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four groups of two just pairs or just by
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themselves um
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and this also develops problem solving
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skills while addressing any challenges
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they encounter during the design process
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so not only are they building using
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volume the actual buildings they're also
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going to be designing and
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decorating before students begin that
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building I'll obviously review the
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formula for volume and connect it to
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real life
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applications we'll also discuss conduct
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expectations in Minecraft such as you
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know griefing
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um teamwork respecting others work and
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practicing good digital
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citizenship um students will then choose
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a plot and use the materials provided to
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create their assigned structure we'll
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talk about different blocks um ways to
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get new blocks different things like
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that um went too
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far um after they built their structures
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and it's been approved by the mayor a me
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um then they can be in working on the
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decorating and design so I don't want
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them just focusing on the design aspect
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I want them
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to do the volume portion first and then
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focus on
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decorating so to support all Learners
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I've built in a variety of
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differentiation strategies for
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struggling Learners I'll provide a word
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bank with key terms and step-by-step
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instructions um I'll also allow them to
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work with the partner or additional
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support so if they want help from like
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the aid or
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myself or an older student sometimes we
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have older students come over to help um
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that's perfectly allowed for gifted
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Learners I'll offer extension activities
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such as designing more complex
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structures or calculating the volumes of
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irregular shapes they can also explore
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added adding details like Redstone poed
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mechanisms for an added
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challenge um there's also like um using
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iron doors which can only be opened by
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using buttons they can just do different
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things like that adding like different
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challenges instead of like a
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um Regular rectangular prism as their um
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shape they could do different structures
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like how I have the city hall split up
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into split up and then connected as um
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one structure so I did the volume for
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two different shapes and then connected
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them and then obviously designed more on
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top of it for that
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design um now let's walk through some of
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the plot so I briefly walked around them
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but I didn't exactly talk about what
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they would be doing so this is the post
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office I've kind of walked around the
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sign the whole time I have a sign for
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each of the areas kind of already
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plotted out that there's no real
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difference in all honesty each plot is a
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90 by
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135 I counted them all out um
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but each plot does have two chests one
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is for building
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materials and one is specifically for
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decorations I also make sure to give the
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memo um to go to the City Hall if there
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is more if needed so you go inside
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there's all types of different things
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they could use for decorations as well
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as um building materials the one thing I
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really did like I um played around with
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is the design guide
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so if you take the book that is the
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design guide you put it in your
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inventory and you um open it up I wrote
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in the different dimensions for the
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build and then I also gave them the
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reminder so each of the rooms will have
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the um plots I mean sorry will have them
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um along with the regular building
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materials um so each post has their sign
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post and
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um their different things they're over
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here there's the pool area I did start
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it but that's
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intentional um so they'll be change they
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they'll have a a um specific
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base because not only can you do um
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length times width times height you can
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also do base times height or in this
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case I guess it would be um depth but um
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they're going to be doing the pool but
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they're going to be changing up the
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depth of the pool as well as other
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measurements to make it a little bit
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different a little bit harder in instead
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of just um the same type of thing copy
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and pasted for each build so there are
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some
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differences um just like let me see if I
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can get a little quicker here just like
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over here at the doctor's office so the
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the for the roleplay part I'll be
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discussing that they started building it
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but then there was issues with um
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getting materials and different things
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so there's like a mix up of materials
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and it's like
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started there's like the doctor's office
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the um sign for it so there are some
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like roleplay aspects that I added so
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that it would be more interesting for
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the
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students um as the students complete
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their builds they will present their
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final structures and explain their
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thought processes including
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um how they appli the volume formula and
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any challenges that they encountered
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along the way whether that be with the
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math itself the building or
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communication with their
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team um along the way so to conclude the
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lesson students will participate in a
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group reflection where they discuss
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their designs compare their calculations
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and share any insight they gain during
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the activity this process allows them to
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develop critical thinking and problem
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solving skills while reinforcing their
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understanding of volume by incorporating
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Minecraft into this lesson students not
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only practice volume calculations but
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also develop additional skills such as
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um time management creativity
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collaboration and digital citizenship
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volume City transforms abstract M
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mathematical Concepts into Hands-On
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engaging experiences that resonate with
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learners at all
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abilities so um thanks for coming guys
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thanks for taking this tour of volume
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City with me I'm looking forward to see
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how my students um use their creativity
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and their mathematical knowledge to
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bring their structures to
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life and that's pretty much
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it bye
