QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES – The Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences (ALLS), through its University Research Council (URC)-funded project entitled School Deployment of the What-If Hypothetical Implementations in Minecraft (WHIMC) organized a summer camp last July 25 to 26, 2023 for Grades 5 to 8 students wherein they explored the WHIMC worlds using Minecraft Java Edition.
WHIMC (What-If Hypothetical Implementations in Minecraft) is a collection of Minecraft worlds that aims to engage, excite, and generate interest and engagement in STEM through computer simulations. With this, the WHIMC summer camp allowed students to explore and interact with these WHIMC worlds to learn about topics in STEM, with the aim to create an educational
experience that nurtures a continuing interest in STEM.
Each day of the summer camp included presentations, discussions, and gameplays of each WHIMC world to explore. The camp had specific module topics which helped the students answer questions such as “What if the Earth had no moon?”, “What if the Earth had a colder sun?”, and “What are exoplanets?”
For the first camp day, the module focused on the exploration of a rocket launch facility and moon base. The participants had to “meet and talk” to the non-player characters (NPCs) in the WHIMC worlds assigned for the day and learn more about their roles and get information about the environment they were exploring. Based on the information they learned, the teacher-facilitator asked the participants to design their own moon base and choose the things they would need in order for the living things to survive.
The second camp day focused on the exploration of a What-If Earth simulation and the exoplanets. For the first part of the session, the participants got a glimpse of how the Earth and its environment would be given certain conditions (i.e. no moon). They were asked to compare the difference of the data gathered such as wind speed, temperature and oxygen from an “unaltered” or regular Earth to an Earth with no moon. Then, the creative work challenge for the participants was to draw a creature that could survive in a What-If Earth condition of his/her choice. Meanwhile, the second part of the session focused on learning about the concept of exoplanets and seeing how it looks like based on actual research gathered from astronomers. The participants were asked to observe the characteristics of the exoplanets they have explored and compare data such as its temperatures, tilt and radiation, to name a few. Then, the participants were challenged to create their own exoplanets and define its features.
A total of 19 students from different basic education institutions attended the 2-day camp held on-site at the Ateneo de Manila University. For more information about WHIMC and sample lesson plans, visit https://go.ateneo.edu/ALLSWHIMCPage.
