Engage, Expand and Encompass through Technology

UDL Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: Exploring Area, Perimeter, and Volume through Minecraft Grade Level: 5-6 Subject: Math Developed By: Brittany Noel Unit: Area, Perimeter, Surface Area, and Volume Abstract:
Provide an overview of the lesson. Include content outcomes addressed and a summary of how it will be taught.

Students will use virtual graph paper and Minecraft to plan and create a 3-D model of a castle. Students will have to meet certain criteria, such as build three rectangular prism towers of varying length, width, and height, and determine their volume. Each group will complete their plan, determine the area and perimeter of the shapes, convert the plan to Minecraft, and determine the volume of the 3-D shapes in the game. Length of lesson: 2-3 class periods

Pre Planning
Big Idea (s)
List the concepts or principles central to this lesson that anchor or connect the smaller ideas.

Area Perimeter Volume Mapping

Essential Questions:
List questions that help students probe for deeper meaning. Essential questions relate to major issues, problems, concerns, interests, or themes relevant to students' lives and set the stage for further questioning

Why is it important to know how to find area, perimeter, and volume? Who uses these skills? Common Core Expectations:
List the Content Expectations that are addressed in this lesson.

-1-

- Find the area of right triangles, other triangles, special quadrilaterals, and polygons by composing into rectangles or decomposing into triangles and other shapes; apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems. - Find the volume of a right rectangular prism with fractional edge lengths by packing it with unit cubes of the appropriate unit fraction edge lengths, and show that the volume is the same as would be found by multiplying the edge lengths of the prism. Apply the formulas V = l w h and V = b h to find volumes of right rectangular prisms with fractional edge lengths in the context of solving realworld and mathematical problems. Objectives:
List 2-4 learning targets that reflect the understandings or insights students are expected to develop by the end of this lesson. Objectives should relate directly to the summative assessment.

Students will be able to find the area and perimeter of two-dimensional shapes (squares, rectangles, and triangles), given the measurements, with 85% accuracy. Given the measurements, students will be able to find the volume of threedimensional shapes (cubes and rectangular prisms), with 85% accuracy. Given certain criteria, students will be able to plan an area and use that plan to create a 3-dimensional model, with 90% accuracy. Brief Description of Summative Assessment
Describe the final assessment used to provide evidence that students have met the learning objective. Be sure to provide choice related to interest and multiple, flexible means for completion that support learning preferences. Include an explicit description of the criteria for quality work.

Minecraft model of planned area Reflection sheet

Lesson Opening:
Describe the opening activity. It should establish a purpose, be engaging and activate prior knowledge. Include a plan for explicitly sharing learning objectives, summative assessment and learning outcome expectations.

Ask students if they are familiar with Minecraft. Explain to those that do not, that it is a video game where you mine resources and can create huge, fantastic structures. Talk to the students about the game and have some students share their experience with the game to excite and hook the students. Explain that the students will be exploring area, perimeter, and volume in Minecraft. Review the formulas to find area, perimeter, and volume. Leave the formulas on the board, or create a reference poster to be placed in the classroom.
-2-

Divide the class into groups of 3-4. Pass out the Planning Criteria and the Minecraft Reflection sheets to students. Tell the students that we will be creating a castle in Minecraft. Our castles will need to be protected by a defensive wall. We will also need to have a wheat field to keep our castle sustained. There are a few requirements to building a castle that each team will have to meet. Review the reflection sheet briefly with the students. Explain that they will be answering the questions as they go along in their planning process.

Exploration:
Describe activities that will enable students to make discoveries related to the big idea and that promote student inquiry.

Students will go to http://www.garrettbartley.com/graphpaper.html. This site has a program that creates virtual graph paper. Students will use the virtual graph paper to create a square, rectangle, and triangle. The students will determine the area and perimeter of the square, rectangle, and triangle.

Check for Understanding

Describe how you will determine the student's level of understanding as it relates to the big idea, essential questions and learning objectives. Be sure to include multiple means to demonstrate understanding, include methods that assess all learners and describe the next steps you will take based on the assessment results.

Students will trade answers with a partner and check answers

Explanation:
Describe how you plan to deliver the content to help students develop a mastery of the objectives. Be sure to provide: explicit learning strategies, multiple representations of information provided, direct instruction to address new vocabulary, frequent opportunities for response and practice, content summary, variety of student centered learning activities.

Students will go to the virtual graph paper website. Student will plan their plot that will be transferred over to Minecraft. When planning, students must remember that Minecraft deals with blocks. When they build walls they must make two lines to over a full square on the graph paper. One square on the graph paper will transfer to one square in the game. Students will use the Planning Criteria to help them plan their plot of land for Minecraft. They must include all the criteria. They will only be able to answer the area and perimeter questions using the virtual graph paper. Volume questions will be answered when building in Minecraft. Students will answer the first question on the Reflection sheet.

Check for Understanding:

Describe how you will determine the student's level of understanding as it relates to the big idea, essential questions and learning objectives. Be sure to include multiple means to demonstrate understanding, include methods that assess all learners and describe the next steps you will take based on the assessment results.

The student will complete the questions they can on the Planning Criteria sheet. Groups will pair up and will use each others plot plan to answer the questions again.
-3-

Groups will check each others work for accuracy.

EXAMPLE OF PLANNED PLOT:

Extended Practice:
Describe the extended practice activities that will help to deepen understanding and provide for greater fluency and accuracy with the new skill. Practice should include both supervised and unsupervised opportunities and have a clear purpose thats shared with the learner. When possible, activities should be authentic and include multiple ways to practice new material.

Students will take their plot and transfer it to Minecraft. The whole class will be playing on a server, so we will all be in the same world. Students must hit F3 and give the teacher the X,Y coordinates of where their plot will be. The teacher will be able to fly around the map and check on each groups progress. The groups should start by building their wall. Once this is built, it is a reference for everything inside of their plot. Students will build their castles and write the volumes of the towers on the Planning Criteria sheet. Students will be given 32 pieces of fence, and no more. They must use these pieces to build their wheat field. Students will build a model of a prism and a pyramid. The teacher can fly around and check these models.

For students who finish quickly, or need more challenging work: - Have the group work together in Minecraft to build a house that will accommodate all of the group members. The students will determine the area of each floor of the house (if
-4-

there is more than one level) and the volume of the whole house. Students can add more structures to their house or castle. Encourage them to be creative, and allow them explore new and challenging shapes.

Closing (15)
Describe the review of big ideas for the purpose of tying ideas together, transitioning to next lesson or continuing practice.

Ask the students the best way to build their plot to maximize the area they have. (Answer: A square of 40 x 40). Ask how students maximized the area of their wheat field (Answer: 8 x 8 square, OR 16 x 16 square using the defensive wall on two sides). Have students give some of the dimensions of their castles. Work with the class to determine the area, perimeter, and volume of different castles. Ask what challenges came up during the lesson, and how did the students overcome these challenges?

-5-

Name: _______________________

Date: _______________

Minecraft Planning Criteria

Minecraft plots will have to meet the following criteria: Plot must have a defensive wall around their area that is one block wide and four blocks high. The area inside of the wall must not be more than 1,600 squares The castle must have three towers that are three different rectangular prisms of varying lengths, heights, and widths. The three towers must be connected by a wall that forms one of the four types of triangles (equilateral, isosceles, scalene, or right). This will form the castles courtyard. Inside of the courtyard, you must build a model of a prism and a pyramid and use signs in the game to label the figures. You will be given 32 units of fence. You must build a perimeter of fence for your wheat field. You want to determine the largest area possible, so you can grow the most wheat possible.

Area of castle plot: ___________________________________________________________

Perimeter of defensive wall: ____________________________________________________

Area, perimeter, and volume of castle towers: Tower 1: Area: _________________________________________________________

-6-

Perimeter: _________________________________________________________ Volume: _________________________________________________________

Tower 2: Area: _________________________________________________________ Perimeter: _________________________________________________________ Volume: _________________________________________________________

Tower 3: Area: _________________________________________________________ Perimeter: _________________________________________________________ Volume: _________________________________________________________

Area of castle courtyard: ________________________________________________________

Perimeter of wheat field: ________________________________________________________

Area of wheat field: _____________________________________________________________

-7-

Name: _______________________

Date: _______________

Minecraft Reflection

Directions: Students will answer the reflection questions as they complete the planning online and the building in Minecraft.

1. What challenges did you face while planning with the virtual graph paper?

2. What challenges did you face when transferring your plan from the virtual graph paper to Minecraft?

3. What challenges did you face while building in Minecraft?

-8-

4. Explain the difference between a prism and a pyramid, and explain how your model in Minecraft represents these shapes.

-9-