Building a scoring method for student-created Mars habitats in Minecraft

This study explored the viability of implementing a scoring system for Mars habitats modeled and built using Minecraft, a commercial game widely utilized in the educational games space since its release. After building a scoring scheme consisting of 12 science-based mastery categories, 24 student-built habitats were assessed to address the following question Is the proposed method for scoring Mars habitats fair for all camp settings? These assessed scores were used in a Spearman’s rank correlation analysis to compare team group sizes, student face-to-face time with instructors, and scores on intermittent knowledge assessments conducted by instructors. The correlation between habitat scores and: group size was found to be slightly negative (r = -0.03), face-to-face time was found to be positive (r = 0.13), and knowledge assessment score was found to be positive (r = 0.51). This indicates that the scoring method is strong and can be utilized to inform future work with Minecraft-constructed Mars habitats and WHIMC project data.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Shipley, Evan Joseph

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lane, H C

• Minecraft
• Work Products
• Mars
• Habitation
• Educational Games
• Stem

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Evan Shipley

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120162

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120162