Tunnels, Bridges, Houses, Farming, Railways all in Minecraft EDU

This visit to Minecraft edu took place in a couple days where we were able to build and craft using tools available and building our own. I thought it would be important to pick a spot that could meet the needs of the tasks for this assignment. I wanted to try my hand at building a house adding window doors, pads and have a crafting table and furnace near the water to help with growing crops.

I was able to create a hoe, a pic axe, a shovel and put the furnace and crafting table along with a chest for storing items in the house I built.

I wanted try to do more mining so I went dow a couple of blocks and made an effort to create a tunnel through the mountain to see what kind of minerals there were to gather. I did find some coal and cobblestone with a bit of iron ore. I laid tracks along the way and placed torches on the wall at regular intervals to light thee way. It took a while to get through and there were  a few challenge with rocks dropping but overall a safe environment.

The image below is from the opposite side of the mountain tunnel entrance.

When I got out of the tunnel I wanted to try something a bit more challenging to build a bridge or viaduct across the water. This was a bit more challenging as I could not place a block directly in front in the water. I manage a few tricks including setting blocks while swimming. What may not be obvious to see from the house and the bridge is I used temporary structures to assist in erection.

The image above shows the bridge viaduct with tracks and railcars. I was working to power the tracks using red stone. Once I had the connection across the water I focused on planting seeds. I didn't find them at first but luckily Tis visited and let me know she had added some to a chest. I made a few trips back to the library for supplies and eventually create a siding with track closer to the water falls for clearer access to the structure.

I dropped some fill back into the water similar to how they built Battery Park City in NY using fill from the World Trade Center. I had to craft a hoe then planted wheat, melons, and pumpkins. I had tested earlier planting saplings that  grew in minutes. The trees were so dense I needed to trim them to ensure light for my new garden.

Here I was able to use the  Redstone building a torch and placing adjacent to the track it powered the railcars.
If there was a plus side for this adventure I had my 3-1/2 year old Grandson watching and telling me where to go. He plays a version on a tablet. We installed Minecraft on another laptop and had him learn how to use the keys E for inventory, W move forward and spacebar to jump. We had to negotiate with him to go home and stop playing. His dad provided him a world that came with an inventory. It was amazing to see the progress he made.

Minecraft Edu

As we are moving through this course it is surprising how many different Games we are exploring. We learned some basic crafting skills in Minecraft and this past week we worked in the edu version that required using another server. After a brief visit through an obstacle course I found myself at a maze. The maze was not too challenging but there were other worlds I could see yet not access.

It was not so easy to figure out how to get out of the tutorial room. Here are got a bit carried away with breaking blocks and building an inventory.

After some attempts to get out of a loop I took advantage of my collection of blocks and built a stairs. This got me to the location I could see from the maze.

Now here there were options for new tools and more resources to use with a crafting table. At this point I was starting to see patterns of logic for building. There were familiar logic like in monopoly 4 green houses one red hotel. With the right combination in minecraft you can pattern tools that can do work for you and there was values to the minerals too.
As the options increase suddenly the inventory slots became important. With only 64 items per slot it did not make sense to fill them all with dirt.

In a n effort to hone my construction skills I tried to build a structure out of dirt. It was a challenge to craft with such a small footprint, funny too how quickly grass grew. I did manage to create stairs from blocks and add safety rails out of fence on the perimeter. I am sure OSHA and Civil Engineers would have me in court for violations.

On my next return visit I decided to utilize wood as I learned we would be moving to another world and could take our inventory with us. I crafted stairs and built a simple tower a rough house and used up a bunch of dirt blocks too building structures. I wanted to try and link structures together from adjacent building pad with some type of bridge but seemed there were limitation on the building sites and you were to stay within the footprint. I was not successful to cantilever past the building line.

As all things must come to an end we are now in a new beginning where we have access to a new Marlboro World. A blank slate for inventory and a checker board to transport home to. I can't help but think this is very familiar to our last Minecraft world especially with the animals and sounds. I will be exploring more here and see what challenges there are.