MINECRAFT CHALLENGES By Lessons for Middle School

Table of Contents

1. MINECRAFT EXPECTATIONS 2. POST-ZOMBIE WORLD 3. SPOOKY CHALLENGE 4. MAY THE ODDS BE FOREVER IN YOUR FAVOR… 5. MINECRAFT FARM 6. CRAFT IT 7. RESTAURANT CHALLENGE 8. CAPTURE THE FLAG 9. GOT TALENT 10. PARKOUR CHALLENGE 11. H20 12. THE IDEAL CITY 13. HOLIDAY THEMED AMUSEMENT PARK 14. SCAVENGER HUNT

Minecraft Expectations

• Stick to the challenge • Remember you “log in name” to spawn back or keep your

inventory • No Raiding • No Griefing • No Killing • No Swearing • Don’t exclude or eliminate your own teammate • No cheats • Respect the computer • Help others improve their skills • No crying or whining

Post-Zombie World

• Ever see a zombie movie or television show? Whether it is I am Legend or The Walking Dead, the plotline is basically the same; everyone on Earth has been wiped out, except for a few people who must now work together to survive and overcome many obstacles. These survivors have to start over and create a new civilization.

• Your challenge is to create this new civilization. The zombies have already been defeated. There aren’t any mutant creatures chasing you. You only need to decide what your new world will look like. What jobs are needed? Who will be in charge?

• In groups you must work together to create this post-zombie world.

• Everyone must have a specific role

• Use your creativity and imagination to build anything you choose to make a successful city, to ensure it is protected from other groups that may be roaming around.

• You must build a modern city equipped with the following:

– City hall

– School

– Fire/police dept.

– Library

– Build roads and bridges

– Build an energy system

– Sewer system for running water

– Develop a factory

– Homes

May the Odds be forever in your favor…

You will be spawned into a survival world. You will be frozen until all players have spawned in.

• You can NOT break any blocks, except for leaves and mushrooms

• You are only allowed to place blocks you find in chests

• Your inventory must be empty when the game starts

• No Nether Portals

• When you die you have to leave the game and sit in the “waiting area”.

• Only 1 player can win

Minecraft Farm

Your task is to capture all the animals you can and create and animal pen on your farm for them.

You may NOT:

• Kill any animals

• All them to be unprotected from mobs, villagers or other teams

You CAN:

• Breed animals

• Shear mushrooms

• Shear sheep

• Use eggs for any purpose

• Use wood for all building/crafting purposes

• Remain on your farm after sunset.

• Find other animals/methods to protect the animals on your team

Craft It

Create a nice house for a team of people. Each individual member of the team should have a set room that they design, create and decorate. The shared living spaces should have:

• A furnace

• Crafting table

• Fire pit

• Infinite water source

• Office

• Windows with glass

As a group consider how you can create a unique living space and also showcase your skill level in the game.

Restaurant Challenge

Your team needs to design your own restaurant. The sky is the limit! Pick a location that fits the theme of your restaurant. Is your restaurant more suited to city life, the country, a beachfront, on a mountain or amongst skyscrapers?

Your restaurant needs to have:

• A location that fits the theme of your restaurant.

• A sign outside your restaurant and possibly a catchy slogan

• A set design or color scheme

• Lighting and decorations

• A dining room where your guests will eat, including tables and chairs which allow for waiters and waitresses to get through to all the tables

• A kitchen with a furnace, storage for food and access to water. Will your restaurant serve a particular type of food? (Italian food, vegetarian or is it a fast food restaurant?

• Where will the restaurant get its food? Will animals or a garden provide food? Can you create an automatic egg farm?

• Will your guests be greeted by a hostess at a stand? Will they pay at the table or a register?

• Create the ambiance by having some music playing

Capture the Flag

As a team collaborate and decide on a specific design for your castle. Each team needs to hide a piece of wool in their castle; the opposing teams need to understand where the flag is hidden. For example: have it at the end of a maze, hide it in a room filled with 30 chests, or put it under glass blocks with mobs protecting it.

Your castle must contain:

• 1 tower

• 5 rooms

• Steady supply of food and water source in multiple chests throughout the castle

• A clear entrance for opposing teams to enter (consider iron bar blocks or nether fence to build a heavy gate or redstone to create a drawbridge)

• Traps (at least one outside of the castle)

FAIR PLAY:

• NO ENCHANTING WEAPONS, ARMOR OR ITEMS

• NO ENDER PEARLS, OR GOLDEN APPLES

• All team members must have on leather armor dyed to match the wool color

• Iron swords

Got Talent

Regardless of your level of skill in Minecraft, you can be an artist. Recreate an image from the real world in Minecraft. Will you build a character, logo or self-portrait? Maybe it is a small image in our world, but you can enlarge it in the Minecraft world and make it larger than life. Consider the time frame you have been given and make sure you can complete it in that time.

Hints:

• It is often easier to start with the center and work around it.

• Search on the computer for your image (use pixel art)

• Create a frame for your pixel art.

• Consider different colors and textures and add glowstone blocks to the edges of your frame for backlighting at night.

Parkour Challenge

Your team is challenged to create a parkour course, which is a series of connected challenges. You will be spawned into a random world and may need to utilize your surroundings and various landscapes. For every two members of the team, you need to have a section. If there are six people on your team you need to have three separate sections to your course. Each person on the team is responsible for building one part of the course and can partner up with another member if needed. Create and utilize different blocks and elements in each section. Provide the players with a smooth transition between each section of the course. The game may require players to perfect their running, leaping, timing or judgment skills.

Each section of the course must be challenging, but something players can pass after a few attempts. Your parkour course must have a clear entrance and a sign telling players how they will know they have reached the end.

• Consider having players collect something in chests that they have to build at the end of the game.

• Use glowstone to light the way in dark spaces

• Consider utilizing other structures or buildings in the course

• Connect a series of block in the air

• Create a dimly lit space and populate it with mobs.

• Have players fall through the course and land on blocks along the way

• Use ladders to help players cling to the wall

• Provide multiple options and direction changes for the players and specific choices may have serious consequences

H2O

Your next challenge is to build a water racecourse. You will have to build a boat or multiple boats for your team to test out your adventurous course. You will be in creative, but will “test” your world in survivial.

Ideas:

• Make your water race automatic by creating a redstone-powered start gate.

• Create obstacles players must move around or through. (Structures, fire, and squid)

• Consider adding a shortcut, but make it challenging for the players to reach or get through

• Include at least two waterfalls.

• Use signs as gates to guide players through and it will give them a speed boost

• Make a fountain

• Place glowstone under water

Remember:

• Water will flow in Minecraft as long as it is moving downhill

• Scoop water by right-clicking with an empty bucket and place water by right-clicking with a full bucket

• Right-click to enter a boat and left-shift to exit the boat.

The Ideal City

• Work together with your team to design and build the ultimate city that reflects a specific culture. Webster’s Dictionary defines culture as “the beliefs, customs, arts, way of life, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time”

• Determine what kind of culture your city will represent. Culture isn’t always about race or geography, but is made up of language, values, experience, behaviors, art and architecture. You can recreate a culture you know of, design one you think it interesting or make up a silly culture. (Minecraft/Gaming is even a culture!) Your city can be building in another dimension, under water, any biome or in the sky. Make sure all members are together before you move to another location.

Culture Checklist

• What people are represented by your city? Monsters, villagers, zombies, animals, fellow players or in-game monsters?

• Is there a hierarchy for the people of your culture?

• What artifacts can be found within your city to represent the story of your culture? The types of books, tools and design your use on your buildings will reveal the story behind the people in your city.

City Components: • Apartments • Homes • Community Garden • Police and Fire Department • Business buildings (elevators, cubicles, working spaces) • Village Hall

• Restaurants • Library • School • Skyscrapers • Parks • Beach

Holiday Themed Amusement Park

• Border around your entire amusement park Sign for the entrance with a creative name for your park 2 roller coasters

• 1 coaster has to have a duration of at least 45 seconds, go through a tunnel in the ground, have an incline lasting for 20 seconds and an end with a cart starting over.

• Archery Course: (buttons as the bull’s-eye can activate a redstone lamp)

• Special Feature (Maybe bumper boats, funhouse with command block and redstone features, maze, mini-golf course, Parkour obstacle course) An attraction that has anything to do with animals (petting zoo, pig race with saddles) Dunk tank: Stand on a trapdoor. Use arrows to activate the button.

• Waterslide

Game:

• Ring toss booth: Use pressure plates and toss blocks onto the pressure plates; once enough are activated a piston lights up.

• Speed mining booth: Build a wooden wall. Give each player a wooden pickaxe and the first person to collect the final block wins.

• ball bounce

When you finish this task be creative and add another element to your park. Consider a ticket booth, security stand, food court, another game, etc)

Scavenger Hunt

Once spawned into the game your team must work together to craft or find the list below. Your team should build a shelter for protection at night and to store the items in chests or utilize the space to build the required items.