CONNECTING POMEROY
Capacity Building and Community Engagement Programme
A £5M European Union PEACE IV project creating community cohesion, community facilities and an iconic magic forest and visitor centre in the County Tyrone village, supported by a capacity building and community engagement programme.
New Centre and Forest Trail
This new shared space building will be built on the site of the old forestry school. It will act as a visitor centre, forest user amenities as well as a shared community building with an open general area which will complement the outside forest area.
OUR CHALLENGE
Using a range of planned drawings and renders, students in St Mary's P.S. Pomeroy and Queen Elizabeth II P.S. Pomeroy are to plan and build a 3D representation of the Forest Visitor Centre using Minecraft Education Edition.
AmmA: Creative Learning will lead and support the delivery of the workshops with both schools over a range of sessions between January and April 2022. These sessions will be delivered using a blended approach of in-person and live-streamed workshops.
Session 1: Minecraft Education Edition - Introductory Activity
In preparing for the difficult task of building a modern, complex building like the Forest Building, AmmA lead two introductory Minecraft sessions, which allowed students and teachers to explore the building process for Jungle Huts and Space Bases. Using the same skills and processes for these relatively simple structures, the students will be able to plan, design and build the Forest Building.
Video Overview of Introductory Activities
By walking through these two structured building activities, students in St Mary's and Queen Elizabeth II P.S. have started to develop future-ready skills, creativity, problem-solving and 3D design thinking.
Session 2 & 3: Planning the Forest Building & Laying Foundations
Following on from the introductory sessions, the students got straight into studying the architectural and planned drawings of the Forest Building. These were supplied by McAdams Designs via the Mid Ulster council. When planning any building in Minecraft, the scaled drawings are the key to simplifying the structure and laying the foundation. Students worked with AmmA through an online workshop to lay out their foundations in Minecraft Education Edition.
Session 4: Raising the Walls & Adding Roof
Next, the students began to raise the walls of the Forest Building. They decided to use a Brown Oak block for the main structure, a Dark Concrete for the flat roof and small Panel blocks on the exposed walls. Once the structure was closed off, tall glass windows and doors were added along with extra detail blocks for finishing touches. The area surrounding the Forest Building was then landscaped with shrubs, trees, hedges, paths, and a car park.
Student Snapshot: Bringing the Forest Building to Life
A video showing the students of St Mary's and Queen Elizabeth II PS using Minecraft Education to transform their 2D foundations into a three dimensional Forest Building!
Outdoor Celebration Day
To finish the project, Rural Action and AmmA Creative Learning hosted an outdoor learning day in Pomeroy Forest. Students from both St Mary's and Queens Elizabeth II PS got the chance to meet face-to -face and a local artist, Mary Murphy, lead a scavenging hunt around the forest. Students were tasked : create a Sound Map of the area around the forest and; design and build their own Mandala using various shrubs, leaves and branches they collected in the forest.
Define: Portal (noun): a doorway, gate, or other entrance. A link between worlds.
A snippet showing a Greenscreen Mandala Portal - an eye through Pomeroy Forest. A doorway linking the very real Pomeroy Forest and the virtual Minecraft Forest Building.
DELIVERED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:
Credits:
Created with images by Unknown - "Empty Forest · Free Stock Photo"