Month: August 2017

School Holiday workshop idea

I’ve been jotting down some ideas on content for a Minecraft command programming workshop to run over school holidays. I’ve some experience in real-time programming in the real world, and I’d like to apply some of that experience to make a programming workshop that introduces some real-time and multitasking programming concepts.

The question I’m asking myself now is how much should the workshop be about programming concepts and how much should it be about just getting familiar with commands in Minecraft? Probably I’ll keep focusing on programming concepts, but I might change course if it turns out the kids are really keen to learn more about commands.

Item Sorter Structure, updated for MC 1.12!

I’ve finally been able to update my item sorter structure for MC 1.12 and load it onto the Minestruck server. (minestruck.site11.com) The link is here:

http://minestruck.site11.com/view.php?id=88

Honestly  there’s not much particularly fun about this sorter structure. It’s meant to be used in custom maps out of sight of the player. Items go into the hopper at the top and come out the bottom in one of two chests depending on whether the item is the selected item (diamond by default). Signs on the structure let the user know how to use/customise it.

Make sure it is turned on before using, otherwise it might get clogged up inside.

I tried to make it efficient by adding commands that switch it off automatically when not in use.

Originally I made this structure for MC 1.11, but the command syntax has changed a bit since then (quotes are required for item names and list entry syntax requirements have also changed slightly)

Here’s an earlier demo video:

An Algebra Beginner’s problem

Healesville and Werribee are on opposite sides of Melbourne. Let’s assume you have to travel through Melbourne to get from Healesville to Werribee.

The distance from Melbourne to Healesville is approximately 60Km,

so we say H=60Km

The distance from Healesville to Werribee is approximately 90Km,

so we say L=90Km

The distance from Werribee to Melbourne is called W

Only one of the statements below is true. Which one is it?

(all units are Km)

a) W = H + L, so W = 60 + 90

b) W + L = H, so W + 90 = 60

c) W + H = L, so W + 60 = 90

d) W + H = L -H, so W + 60 = 90 – 60

Teacher problems

At someone’s suggestion, I’ve just done an internet search on teachers leaving the profession. It seems to be an ongoing problem. Here is the most recent article I found on the subject:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/08/almost-a-quarter-of-teachers-who-have-qualified-since-2011-have-left-profession

These kind of articles have been appearing continuously for over a year.

Meanwhile more and more parents are turning to tutors:

https://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/36623550/aussie-parents-turning-to-tutors/#page1

There was a comment that remedial tutoring only works if done intensively. My approach to remedial tutoring is to focus on one thing at a time and help the student learn that fundamental step even if it means going back to things they were meant to learn two or three years ago and make sure they learn it properly once and for all. This won’t have the effect of improving their grade immediately, but it will have the lasting benefit of providing them with a solid foundation on which they can build further learning.

My first mod – Highway Maker

I have just (re)published my first mod on this website. (I published it previously when my website was hosted by Godaddy using their horrible Website Builder service. Now I’m used to WordPress I won’t be looking back!)

The mod is called Highway Maker. It allows the player to put high speed highways in their Minecraft world while playing a survival game. Unfortunately it only runs on MC 1.11, because I finished it quite some time ago and got distracted when MC 1.12 came out with functions.

Here is the link to the page.