This week I started Chapter 11! I did simplified square roots and added them together. Once I finish Chapter 11, I have Chapter 12 and then this year's math is done!
Creative Writing:
This week we started writing scenes from our play ideas. We also took a scene from a story the teacher read and converted it into play form.
Social Studies:
This week I read two chapters of Story Of The World. I learned about the king of France and all about the many, many coincidental deaths at that time. Or was it coincidence? Either way, lots of death explained in an unfeeling, uncaring voice, brought to you by a small sentence in a large paragraph.
Tech (Exploring Technology):
This week I had to do something different because we ran out of time to buy more Exploring Technology curriculum. So, I decided for the rest of the school year I'm going to learn about various subjects from the Minecraft Marketplace and play the free educational worlds Mojang has. In short, I learned about global warming from a Minecraft world.
The world was free on the Minecraft Marketplace, fortunately. I only have 30 Minecoins (the Minecraft money) at this time, and the cheapest worlds are about 190 coins. So, free is the way to go.
There are 5 Minecraft worlds on this topic. The player learns facts about the animals and how they must adapt to the world, while being placed in the various animals' shoes (paws, flippers, tails?) and interacting with the world how the animals would. After that, the player snaps pictures of the animals with a Minecraft camera and learns some more facts about each animal. It was so much fun and I learned a lot!
So first, I did Frozen Ocean. I started as a polar bear mother and had to lead my cubs to the hunting grounds. The cubs are slower in the water than their mother, and wouldn't be able to keep up with me if I went that way. So, I had to go on the ice. That's difficult because there was so little ice left. Also, I had to scare off the male bears when they came close because they wanted to eat my cubs. Eventually, I made it!
The next animal in the world was a walrus. The walruses have to stay warm by hoisting their heavy (very, very heavy) bodies to a sunbathing location, and they must stay cool by swimming in the frigid ocean. To do this they roll from the top of the ice into the water. I did an activity where I have to move the walruses as they roll down, avoiding rocks and other walruses. It was difficult but fun!
Finally I snapped pictures of the animals and read the notes in the notepad. I learned that with global warming, the polar bears have to venture up into the humans' camps and forage there. That makes problems for both human and bear. At the end of the map I learned some ways to slow global warning- riding in a car less and other things. Things I already knew, but are very important.
Next, I did Frozen South. I started as a penguin collecting rocks for my nest. The rocks keep the baby penguin warm and dry when it hatches. Other penguins tried to steal the rocks from my nest, and I had to scare them off. A couple times they were successful and I had to find more rocks. In the end, I got all the rocks needed and my baby was warm and dry.
Next, I was a killer whale. Each killer whale in a pod has to eat one seal a day! The whales have to work as a team to tip the ice over and make the seal fall into the water. I had to swim through circles collecting each member of my pod and then press the space bar at a certain time (when the slider was in the green) to tip the ice fully. There were three levels, and each level was harder because the green space was smaller- thus making it harder to tip the ice. I won, though, and it was very fun!
I took my pictures, read my notes, and learned more about how to protect the Earth, such as using less or no plastic and eating less lamb and beef. I don't eat lamb anyway, but still. These worlds were so much fun and I learned a lot! Next week I will do the rest of them, and then move on to another subject. Minecraft isn't just a video game where you do whatever. It teaches so much, not even including the educational worlds in the Marketplace. It teaches creativity, how to not waste resources, teamwork and collaboration, coding (in some worlds more than others), among others. So, very awesome!
I only wish it was Earth Day when I started this. Earth Day is coming up, but that would've been cool. :)
Elective (Writing for Publication):
This week we read our revisions to the class. The teacher and students gave more feedback, so we're doing our second revisions for the Link Student Blog articles. The teacher said my essay probably only needs the second edit and then it's done!!!
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