By Dustin Delfin, Middle School Math Teacher
Sixth-grade math students have just finished their Math Zillow Page project. Since November, they’ve been using the Math 6 City in Minecraft as a simulation for real-world scenarios. This city is designed based on a Cartesian Coordinate plane, and students learned how to plot ordered pairs in all four quadrants. Our math city is divided into four different towns: City of Quadrant 1, City of Quadrant 2, City of Quadrant 3, and City of Quadrant 4. Each interval along the axes (or, in our case, the X and Y Freeways) is worth 0.25 units; this allows students to plot rational numbers on the coordinate plane. Each plot of land consists of an ordered pair, which is referred to as the address for that location.
Students were tasked with making adult decisions by choosing which one of three different-sized plots of land they wanted to purchase. After calculating the monthly costs of a 30-year mortgage, they spent time building their dream homes in Minecraft.
While construction was taking place in Math City, students were introduced to our algebra unit, where they learned how to write, simplify, and evaluate algebraic expressions. Algebra tiles were used to teach students how to combine like terms. For example, they explored finding the area and perimeter of these algebra tiles with variables in their answers.
This led back to the construction of their homes. Students were asked to assume that each square in Minecraft represented an X square algebra tile, which connected this experience to algebra by finding the area and perimeter of their homes. Once their dream homes were constructed, students showcased their dwellings by creating a Zillow page.
Similar to a real Zillow website, students linked their final product to a map of the Math City, where each student can visit other pages created by their peers. Each Zillow page includes the appropriate address (ordered pair), city location (quadrant), cost, area, perimeter, and screenshots to help sell their spaces.
Check out these great listings of creatively designed homes. Check with your local sixth-grade math student to buy a new Minecraft home today!
The next step for their adventure is to bring their entire Math City to life by 3D printing their entire Minecraft Math City.
Well done, city planning and residential architect mathematicians!