Minecraft Challenge Entries (vote here!)

A few months back, I assigned an optional Minecraft challenge - to craft a floating building that was at least three floors tall and had a secret room. Eleven students completed the challenge and submitted videos of their work. (Other students also worked on or completed the challenge, but were unable to submit videos.)

Below are the videos of the ten entries, and below the videos is a poll for you to vote for the entry you found most impressive.

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Laurelou

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Matthew

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Chloe & Mia

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Cole

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Ivy

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John

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Kali

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Piper

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Tyler

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Collin

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Owen

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Vote here for the entry you found most impressive! (You may vote once per day from as many devices as you would like. Voting will close on April 10th.)

The winner, as chosen by the voters, will receive this plush Minecraft piglet:

(My homeroom students also had the same challenge. To see their entries, and vote for your favorite, click here.)

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Fraction Tutorials

We recently finished a unit on fractions that covered; adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions. Fractions can be tricky things, and this was probably the most challenging math unit of 5th grade.

To help us review and remember some of the more challenging operations, a few students made tutorials, below, highlighting strategies for multiplication and division of fractions. (Other tutorials are still in the works!)

Dividing a fraction by a whole number (by Mia):

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Dividing a whole number by a fraction (by Maya):

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Dividing a fraction by a whole number (by Chloe):

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Hopefully these tutorials will help you understand and solve fraction operations!

Pi Day Challenge

March 14 is Pi Day because the date is 3/14, and those are the first three digits of the number pi (3.141592653....) This year, however, is a special Pi Day because the calendar will read 3/14/15 - the first five digits of pi!

Pi is an irrational number (it has an infinite number of digits) that is very important in many mathematical equations. 

The use of pi is a little beyond what we have been learning in 5th grade math, but I'm going to give an optional challenge relating to pi due to the special significance of this year's Pi Day. 

You do not have to do this challenge, but if you do, you may have the chance to win your very own box of Popin' Cookin'! Mmm, mmm!

(Why Popin' Cookin'? I don't really know... But there will almost certainly be some circular edibles in each box.)

You can have help with this challenge and you can look up videos or other resources to help you. You just need to be able to explain how you got the answers to me in person.

Here are the challenge questions (and a link to them as a Google Doc):

1. What does the diameter of a circle measure?
2. What does the circumference of a circle measure?
3. If the diameter of a pizza is 12 inches, what is the circumference of the pizza? (Round to the nearest 100th.)
4. If the radius of a pumpkin pie is 4 inches, what is the circumference of the pie? (Round to the nearest 100th.)
5. What are two big discoveries that were made because of people’s understanding of pi?

Here are some resources to help you with the challenge:

• A video to explain the formula for using pi and the radius of a circle to find its circumference.

• Pizza Pi: An interactive that teaches the equations for finding the circumference and area of circles.

• This animated gif shows how the diameter of a circle is related to its circumference (there are a little more than 3 diameter lengths in the circumference of any circle.)

"Pi-unrolled slow" by John Reid & Arpad Horvath - Image:Pi-unrolled-720.gif. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pi-unrolled_slow.gif#/media/File:Pi-unrolled_slow.gif

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The challenge is due Wednesday, March 18th.

Good Luck!

Minecraft Challenge - Floating Building

For our first Minecraft challenge, you will need to craft a building (a house, castle, hotel, mansion, etc.) on a floating section of land. You can use any version of Minecraft you would like, but cannot use any mods or texture packs. You can get ideas from videos, pictures, or tutorials, but you need to be the one who builds it.

Here are the only other requirements:

• The floating island must be at least 10 blocks above the land or water.
• The building must have at least 3 floors, with a means of getting between each floor (stairs, ladders, elevators, etc.)
• There must be a secret room somewhere in the house.

That's about it! On top of those requirements, you can do whatever you would like to make your building and floating island as impressive as possible. Be creative!

Below are some more images to give you ideas:

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