Our middle school computer programming class is building a [virtual] colony on Mars, using robots and Microsoft MakeCode programs we're creating in Minecraft Education Edition. This is the website our teacher (Dr. Fryer) is using to share resources, links and videos related to this project. Current resources include:
Our project vision and visualizations: "Visualizing Our Mars Colony"
We also have collected some Mars and Space Related Sprites / Graphics from Canva.com.
Visions of a Mars Base / Colony
(Drawn with help from ChatGPT-4 DAL-E 3. Documentation available, along with more AI tips and experiments!)
The initial coding demo sequence / robot build was in a Minecraft Education world using seed 128388. (Photos are available!)
Protective Dome Update
Yesterday (15 Nov 2023) our class created an initial draft of our Mars Colony base, and started identifying coordinates in our "Mars Seed World" (128388) for the different buildings we are going to construct. With help from ChatGPT 4, we calculated the needed radius for our base, using the coordinates of the center / origin as well as points on the "outer circle" of the base. We're creating a 78 block radius "protective dome" of glass around the base / Mars Colony. Next steps will be identifying the location (by Minecraft Coordinates) of the different structures our 7 different student teams will build.
Lessons Learned and Questions
Here are some of the lessons we've learned so far (as of October 11, 2023) building and farming with Microsoft MakeCode in Minecraft Education. (Also available as a slideshow)