We interviewed Tanner Goodlett of Old Kentucky Home Middle School about his experience using Minecraft in the Purple Plow Challenge.
Why did you decide to participate in the Purple Plow Challenge?
The Purple Plow challenge proved to be an excellent tool for assessing my students' learning. After exploring Dr. Grandin's revolutionary cattle designs, we used The Cattle Ranch Riddle Purple Plow Challenge as our Quarterly Assessment to conclude the year.
In my Intro to Agriculture class, students delve into the perspectives of Animal Welfare and animal rights. We cover various topics such as tagging, animal housing, and animal welfare, along with watching and discussing the Temple Grandin movie. The Purple Plow effectively integrated all these elements into a showcase, combining welfare, environmental concerns, and societal preferences.
How did you fit it into your curriculum?
My Intro to Agriculture course provides a broad overview for 6th-grade students, focusing on the question, "What does it mean to be an Educated Consumer of Agriculture in the 21st Century?"
We address challenges like growing population and how future farms need to adapt to support a population of 9 billion people. Traditionally, students build 3D models of cattle handling systems, but the Purple Plow challenge offered a more comprehensive way to showcase these concepts and enhance our curriculum.
Many of your students used Minecraft Education to create their models for the challenge, can you talk to us about how they decided to do that, and why?
Many students found using Minecraft Education to be the easiest way
to build their cattle ranch projects. Inspired by the challenge's
profile picture featuring a Minecraft cow, I discovered our district had
a subscription.
The setup was simple - forwarding student names and email addresses
to the technology department allowed them to create accounts. Students
could then choose between building physical or virtual models. I could
easily monitor their progress and they could give virtual tours. The
popularity of Minecraft among students made it a natural choice,
offering endless possibilities for creativity.
The popularity of Minecraft among students made it a natural choice, offering endless possibilities for creativity.
Do you think your students gained knowledge in the process of the challenge?
The Purple Plow project provided numerous takeaways for my students.
Before building, they had to research and answer questions outlined in
the Purple Plow Guidebook, covering aspects like space per head of
cattle, pasture requirements, and nutrition differences.
In the future, I plan to bring in local producers to provide firsthand insights into being a beef producer in Kentucky. The learning outcomes were impressive, and the students enjoyed the process.
What would you change next time?
While the experience was positive, I plan to adjust the timeline of
events for future projects. Visiting a stockyard was part of the initial
plan, and I aim to incorporate more experiential learning to break up
research and workdays. The guidebook was instrumental in outlining
student learning outcomes and will continue to be a valuable resource in
refining the curriculum.
Check out one winning team's tour of their Minecraft built ranch below!
Learn about how to participate in the next STEM Challenge!