Tinkercad Vs. Minecraft

 

We are always looking for challenges to engage and encourage the students in the classroom, particularly in anything related to digital design and creation.

We are using Tinkercad with our class of seven and eight year old students (Y3/4 in New Zealand) and we have a class of 25 students working at a (regular) state school in New Zealand.  We are very lucky to be a ADE school and we have a 1:1 iPad school (of 200 students).   You can locate further information about our school by clicking on the link here.

One of the most popular and enduring games or activities that the students have used and work and design in is Minecraft and Minecraft Education.

Minecraft has a range of characters, creations and locations which are typically block based - which works in wonderfully with Tinkercad which has a design page based on a number of shapes.

This has allowed the class of students to create their own version of the Minecraft characters using Tinkercad as a creation tool.   Our students spent the afternoon choosing a Minecraft character and then attempting to replicate the character in the creation process via Tinkercad.   Students then checked in which each other about details - as we had several experts in the classroom they were able to look at the characters and provide feedback to each other about them.   They then compared the specific details of the creations with the originals and made adjustments to ensure that they were as close as possible.   There were several instances where the originals were very close.

The Tinkercad interface allows the design tool to alter the colour of the individual shapes and details.   This allowed students to introduce specific details and colouring, such as the design shown left.   The student manipulated the design of a specific colour.

We have written in the past about activities that involve 3D Design (CAD) design but do not necessarily lend themselves to 3D Printing.  

This design task was another example of this - if you click on this link it will take you to a page on this blog which labelled is 'guide/special projects'.

Once the design process was completed, the designs had been compared to the originals and then refined the next step was for the students to AR/VR their designs into the classroom setting to 'pose' them.

In this example shown left, the students have designed a Minecraft Creeper and placed it in the classroom setting.   The creeper was designed using Tinkercad in the main interface and then projected into the classroom setting using the AR/VR button on the iPad via the Tinkercad app.

This example shows a basic character from the game when the student presented this and then projected the image the next step was to challenge the student to create a more complex or detailed design.   

There is an example of the next level of design showing below.  In this example the student chose another animal that is popular in Minecraft, the axolotl.   This proved to be an extremely challenging design.

The design is shown left, the design has been AR/VR onto the floor the classroom.

The colour that was created using the design matched the colour of the design in the game.   The ability to recognise the design was high amongst the students.   This was amongst some of the most detailed creations from the students in the classroom.

There will be an additional slideshow that will be published on this learning activity explaining it in detail.