Minecraft Club: Student Learning Reflection

I asked my students to reflect on what they learned so far from our Minecraft club, based on some of the club objectives.

Objectives (Developing Civic Competence):

• Create a culture for their community
• Adapt to environment
• Experience interactions among other individuals and groups
• Develop structures of governing power and authority
• Understand the interdependence of communities
• Develop ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship
• Develop communication & collaboration skills

Here is one of my 5th grade students' learning reflection:

During the third quarter of school, I really enjoyed my Fridays, unlike the past semester when Fridays were painful for me. The reason was Minecraft Club!!! My friend and I helped Mr. Lee create this club. Eight other lucky people were picked to participate in Minecraft club. We were split into two communities: my friend's community (Community #1) and my community (Community #2). Many people thought that this club was all about playing Minecraft, but it’s not. This is an educational club where students learn  through Minecraft-play. The purpose for this club was for students to develop  civic competence. Minecraft club is very strict so we needed to be careful. We could even be kicked out! Anyways, we have learned many new things in Minecraft club, even some wisdom! We had to build bases, mines, beacons, portals, and etc. We had people leave communities, join new communities, people trying to raid other bases, and etc. So here are my three things I learned during Minecraft Club. I mainly learned and experienced these objectives: Adapting to environment, Experience interactions among other individuals and groups, and Develop communication and collaboration skills.

First, our community adapted to the environment in a very efficient way. Since our community settled in a cave, we used the cave to make an underground base. Our base didn’t require many resources, just some wood and stone. The wood and stone were used pickaxes. Stone was used to make the stairs. We gathered resources so we can use them for later. The base, which is a gigantic cave, also made it easy for us to find ravines to mine in. Lastly, our community adapted to the environment by making a farm. Since our environment had barely any livestock, we used the large area of grass we had in the environment to make a farm and produce wheat for bread.  We learned to efficiently adapt to the environment and use the resources it provided.
I have also experienced interactions among other individuals. I didn’t really interact with the other community, just with members of my community. We went searching for some wildlife to obtain some food and looked for mining areas to find more ore. It was dangerous, but we worked as a team and we survived.  A community member and I mined a great amount of coal, redstone, iron, redstone, and lapis lazuli. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any diamonds. With another group member, we made a gigantic farm and planted seeds. We also met in the mine and mined together. As a community, we made sure to help one another. I saved a group member from falling into lava, and another member helped me fight off skeletons when I was armor-less and weaponless. We learned about teamwork and citizenship through our interactions.

Lastly, we improved our communication & collaboration skills during the club. We learned to quickly report danger that occurred in our community.  For example, each member would report to the group when outsiders tried to come into our base. After being alerted, my teammates would quickly come and kill the intruding creepers, zombies, and skeletons. We learned that fast communication is very important because it can save a number of items, people, and creatures in our community. We learned how to collaborate, especially when we were on top of lava. We helped each other do our jobs so that we could all pass on the lava safely. The builder built the road on top of the lava, and the others moved back so that they wouldn't block the builder’s sight. We learned that collaboration with each other made things that seemed impossible possible.