Newton Mining Co. A Teacher s Guide for the MinecraftEdu World Created by Joey Glatt All Rights Reserved Page 1

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1 Newton Mining Co. A Teacher s Guide for the MinecraftEdu World Created by Joey Glatt 2015 All Rights Reserved Page 1

2 Contents Introduction... 3 Overview... 3 Before You Start... 4 Walkthrough... 5 Starting Area... 5 Entrance Chamber... 6 Introducing Inertia Track... 7 Changes in Inertia Track... 8 Transfer of Momentum Track Open Lab Hub Open Labs Senior Miner Lounge (Teacher Lounges) Example Assignments Establishing Metrics How Far? How High? Flying High Minecart Launching Limited Resources Can you Complete the Loop? Minecraft vs. Reality Compare and Contrast All Rights Reserved Page 2

3 Introduction Howdy, Partner, and welcome to Newton Mining Co.! Established in 1687, we re the #1 exporter of all those valuable rocks everyone loves craftin with Gold, Emerald, Diamond, Redstone, you name it! But we didn t get that way just by diggin down and hauling it all out by hand, no siree. We use minecarts, powered by nothin but a few power rails and liberal application of the laws of physics! Unfortunately, those rails do wear out after some time, and we re long overdue to lay down some new track. That s where you come in, Junior Miners! Study some of our rail systems so you can bone up on your physics, then help us set up some new track down in the mine shafts! You up for the challenge? Then saddle up and let s go! Newton Mining Co. is a MinecraftEdu World built to help teach and reinforce the basics of physics, in particular the concepts of force, inertia, and momentum. Students will first observe several examples of physics in action using minecarts before splitting up into teams to work on assignments in an open-lab environment. (Disclaimer: Minecraft s physics do not match the real world s physics 1-to-1. Additionally, there are some characteristics, such as an object s mass, that cannot be measured in any reliable way in Minecraft. Because of this, Newton Mining Co. should be used as a supplement to regular physics lessons, not as a replacement.) Overview Newton Mining Co. is divided into two major sections: Examples The first half of the map has several minecart tracks already set up to display simple examples of various physics concepts. Students can interact with these examples, or you can gather them together and show them yourself. Signs and message blocks posted nearby explain what is happening and encourage students to investigate and answer their own questions. Open Lab At the end of the map are four large chambers that students are allowed to build in. Each chamber has a large chest filled to the brim with all the materials they ll need to create whatever minecart track or tracks they so desire. You can choose to simply let them build and explore on their own, or you can give out one of the assignments listed later on in this document for them to work on. By playing in this world, students will learn the following: Various physics terms, such as Force, Inertia, Momentum, and Resistance. Force = Mass x Acceleration, and how changing any one of those values can alter the whole equation. How forces can act upon a moving object to either speed it up (gravity) or slow it down (friction). Transfer of momentum, and how the results of the transfer differ depending on which objects are involved All Rights Reserved Page 3

4 Resource management 3D spatial design Planning and executing projects Teamwork and cooperation Digital citizenship Before You Start If you or your students (or both!) are still new to the world of Minecraft, it is highly recommended that you first play through the Tutorial World that s included with MinecraftEdu. This will give you an excellent overview of the controls and what is possible in Minecraft. You can learn more about this MinecraftEdu World here: When you are ready, load up the Newton Mining Co. World onto your server and log in as a Teacher. Once you are in the World, open up your Teacher Menu by pressing the M key and make sure the following settings are toggled: On the World Settings tab (second tab from the left; picture of a globe) o Gamemode is set to MinecraftEdu o Difficulty is set to Normal o Time is locked at 18:00 o All other options are unchecked On the Player Settings tab (third tab from the left; picture of a person and a wrench) o All options are unchecked Once this is done, you should decide if you would like your students to go through the examples first or if you d like to just start out in the open lap portion. If you want to do the latter, you should go into the Senior Miner Lounge to take care of that (more on that later). After this, your World is ready for students to come in! 2015 All Rights Reserved Page 4

5 Walkthrough Starting Area All users entering the World for the first time spawn in this area. Students can check out some of the structures and read the message board to set the tone for this World while waiting for everyone to log on. Students can use this time to explore and get their bearings a bit before starting the lesson proper. Take this time to see if there are any students still unsure about how to play and help them out. While players can scale some of the nearby walls a bit, there is no way out of this area except by going into the mines. Make sure no one runs ahead until everyone is ready. The elevated building is the first Senior Miner Lounge. Only Teachers can go inside, as Students are kept out by a hidden Border Block. Minecarts will occasionally ride by on the nearby tracks (which run all the way through the mine and back out again), and will stop if a player gets in the way. They don t have any effect on the World besides theming, so don t worry if a student bumps into one All Rights Reserved Page 5

6 Entrance Chamber When you are ready, have your students enter the mines and go down the first few flights of steps. On their way to the first exhibit, they will pass through the Entrance Chamber, where a massive minecart system can be observed. The Information Block here gives a brief summary of how minecarts behave in Minecraft. It may be useful to have anyone still new to the game read it over All Rights Reserved Page 6

7 Introducing Inertia Track Just past the Entrance Chamber and to the right is the first example track. Here, the concept of inertia and momentum is introduced by having two minecarts of different weights launched at the same speed off a loop of track. As they both start with the same acceleration, the lighter minecart has less inertia, and thus slows down faster than the heavier minecart, requiring an additional set of powered rails to complete the loop that the heavy minecart does not. When the students first come to this area, explain what inertia and momentum are, and what factors contribute to them. Also explain how, in the Minecraft world, empty carts are light while carts with chests in them are heavy. Have your students observe the two minecarts and ask them if they notice anything. If they are having trouble, ask if one seems to slow down more or if one needs more help completing the loop (via additional power rails). Once your students notice the different speeds, ask them what they think makes the difference and why. This may be a good time to introduce one of Physics most classic formulas: Force = Mass x Acceleration. Warning: Although this area is fenced off to keep users from wandering onto the track, a clever student may realize they can still right-click on the empty minecart to hop inside it, bypassing the fence entirely. If this happens, use the Player Management tab in the Teacher Menu to teleport the student back to the correct side of the fence (this is the main reason all other fenced off minecart tracks use minecarts with chests) All Rights Reserved Page 7

8 Changes in Inertia Track Continuing from the first example, students will cross a bridge to reach the more interactive second exhibit. Two identical minecarts can be launched off at the same speed with the flick of a switch. However, while one has a completely flat track, the other has to go up a hill partway through. Both slow down before they reach the end of the track, but the one with the hill will stop first. This is a perfect example of how forces can affect inertia to different extents; both minecarts experienced friction, but the second one also had to fight against the force of gravity, making it slow down faster. When students reach this area, spend a moment discussing how forces can make things lose speed. Use friction as a primary example of this. For this example, you can either flip both switches yourself or have your students do it to make it more interactive. After the experiment, ask your students what they think caused the second minecart to slow down faster. Ask your students what other experiments they d like to see on this set of track. What if heavy minecarts were used? What if a minecart was launched and then went downhill instead of uphill? Feel free to let the students interact with things themselves once you are done demonstrating the initial experiment. If something happens to the minecarts and they need to be replaced, there is a chest nearby with extras All Rights Reserved Page 8

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10 Transfer of Momentum Track The third and final example area consists of three straight lines of track that, like before, you can launch minecarts down by pulling a lever. One track only has a single empty minecart on it, but the other two have empty minecarts at the halfway point that you launch an empty and chest-filled minecart at, respectively. This allows for an excellent example of the concept of transfer of momentum, as the launched minecarts on the latter two tracks will come to an immediate stop when they hit the second minecarts, while those minecarts start moving instead. It also demonstrates how some of the momentum is lost in the transfer, as the two empty minecarts won t go as far as the single empty minecart does. Meanwhile, it also shows that an object with more momentum WILL transfer more of it into a lighter object, as the heavy/light combo covers more ground than the light/light one does (almost matching the distance of the single empty minecart exactly, interestingly enough). As students enter this area, explain how momentum can be transferred from one object to another. Like with the previous example, you can choose to flip the switches yourself or have a student do it. After launching the minecarts, ask your students questions about the results. What minecart did they think would go the furthest? Which one actually did? Did any minecarts go less distance than they expected? Why do they think that is? Once you are done, you can let the students conduct their own experiments. What if three minecarts are on a single track? What if a light minecart hits a heavy minecart instead of the other way around? Can a heavy minecart hitting a heavy minecart beat a single light minecart in distance? 2015 All Rights Reserved Page 10

11 As before, there is a chest nearby to replace minecarts if one of them goes missing. Additionally, a single square in the ground is marked with obsidian (black stone) where the midpoint minecarts originally were, so you can reset the example exactly All Rights Reserved Page 11

12 Open Lab Hub Past this area is the start of the second major portion of Newton Mining Co.: The Open Lab. Once students go inside the large, wooden structure, they can choose one of four doors to go through, which will lead down to one of four identical Mining Shafts, or Open Lab areas. As students enter the Hub Room, explain to them that they will soon be able to build and run their own minecart tracks. They will have the ability to dig and place blocks in their area (something they cannot do anywhere else in the World), so now may be a good time to explain what expectations you have of them (i.e. being respectful, no wrecking each other s stuff, etc). Once everyone s inside, start dividing students up into four groups, one for each Open Lab area. After everyone s been assigned a group, have them go through the correct doors to begin. The door on the far end leads to a second Teacher s Lounge. Like the first one, a hidden Border Block keeps Students out but allows Teachers in All Rights Reserved Page 12

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14 Open Labs Once through the doors, students will climb down a long ladder into one of four identical Mining Shafts that serve as the Open Lab areas. These chambers are large approximately 25 blocks long by 25 blocks wide by 10 blocks tall and contain a single large chest filled with all the items students will need to create various minecart tracks. These chests contain: 256 Rails 256 Powered Rails 256 Cobblestone Blocks 64 Torches 64 Redstone Torches 64 Stone Buttons 64 Levers 16 Empty Minecarts 16 Minecarts with Chests 6 Diamond Pickaxes Once students are in this area, you can choose to let them act on their own, building various tracks and experimenting with Minecraft s physics for themselves, or you can assign them specific tasks for them to do. A list of example assignments is included later on in this guide All Rights Reserved Page 14

15 Build Allow Blocks are hidden underneath the floor in each of the four chambers, so even if students aren t in Build Mode, they will be able to dig and place blocks in this area (and only this area). The walls and ceiling cannot be dug through, however, preventing enterprising students from attempting to escape. Now may be a good time to review some specific rules about how minecarts in Minecraft work. In particular, topics such as how to ride a minecart, how Powered Rails can be activated and how they affect carts running over them, and how to pick up and place track and carts are all subjects worth covering if your students are unsure and did not read the Information Block in the Entrance Chamber. If your students need more of a specific item than what s given to them in the chest, you can provide them with more by using the Give Tab on the Teacher Menu (middle tab, with the picture of a present) All Rights Reserved Page 15

16 Senior Miner Lounge (Teacher Lounges) In both the Starting Area and the Open Lab Hub there are Senior Miner Lounges : Small areas that only teacher accounts can get into (Border Blocks prevent students from getting in). Besides being quiet side areas for teachers to relax in as students explore, they also contain Message Blocks giving a brief summary of the world and are connected to each other via Teleport Blocks, allowing teachers quick access to the beginning and end of the mines. Finally, a chest in the second Teacher Lounge contains a Spawn Block. If a teacher picks it up and places it somewhere in the Open Lab Hub, students entering the map for the first time will spawn there instead of outside. This is convenient if you want to skip the Examples portion of the world entirely and just have your students go straight to the Open Lab All Rights Reserved Page 16

17 Example Assignments While the Open Lab area can be used as a playground for students to build and experiment with their own minecart tracks, you may instead want to give them structured lessons or projects to complete. Here are some potential assignments you can use in your class, or use as inspiration when creating your own projects. Establishing Metrics How Far? How High? How far can an empty minecart go after running through three Power Rails? How far uphill can a minecart with Chest travel after just one Power Rail? Is there a point where adding extra Power Rails doesn t make the minecart go any further or faster? Have your students build various identical tracks, only changing a few variables on each, so they can observe cause and effect. You can have them fill in a table like the one below: Distance Covered on Flat Ground (by Number of Rails) Number of Powered Rails Empty Minecart Minecart with Chest All Rights Reserved Page 17

18 Flying High Minecart Launching Have your students compete to, with a limited amount of resources and space, create a ramp that will send a minecart the furthest distance through the air once it leaves the track. Minecarts come to a full stop the moment they touch the ground, so students will have to find the right balance of having the cart roll downhill to pick up speed and having it still be high enough off the ground to travel a good distance while in the air. Measure and compare the results of the four groups to determine who the winner is. You may want to limit students to one (or zero!) Powered Rails, to prevent them from abusing their ability All Rights Reserved Page 18

19 Limited Resources Can you Complete the Loop? Make a convoluted track, with plenty of turns and hills, but only use regular rails. Then, challenge your students to fix the track so that a minecart can complete a full loop without any outside interference by replacing some rails with Power Rails. However, limit your students to only a very small number of Power Rails (and Redstone Torches to activate them). They will have to study the track and experiment to determine the optimal locations to put the Power Rails All Rights Reserved Page 19

20 Minecraft vs. Reality Compare and Contrast As one might suspect given that this is a game where cobblestone can float in mid-air, Minecraft s physics are not 100% identical to the real world s. Have your students perform experiments in the real world and record the results, then have them recreate the same experiment in Minecraft. The easiest real world comparison to make is with Collision Carts that are ubiquitous to physics classrooms the world over. Once students have data from both versions of the experiment, have them compare and contrast the results and create hypotheses on what caused discrepancies. Was there a variable that Minecraft s physics failed to take into account? Or are results fudged for the sake of good gameplay over accurate physics? 2015 All Rights Reserved Page 20