Indian Creek Public School Canada 150 project wins first across Canada

What do you get when you combine technology and a love of Minecraft with students?

Colin Pattison, Grade 7 teacher at Indian Creek Public School in Chatham, got his students and fellow teachers involved in the Microsoft Canada 150 project “Explore. Teach. Build. Challenge.” using Minecraft Education Edition and Sway, winning first place for elementary students across Canada.

In a special presentation at the school recently, representatives from Microsoft were on hand to award a prize pack of 28 HP Pro-G3 laptops, the latest device built for classrooms and educational game play like Minecraft.

Cameron Smith and Christine Diadamo, members of the Microsoft education team, praised the entry from the school, and said they had never seen the level of collaboration in a school as they did at Indian Creek.

“Usually you will see two or three students working on a project like this, but here, all the intermediate students were involved,” Diadamo said. “It was amazing what this school put together and showcases the power of what you can do with technology.”

For this project, Intermediate students from Indian Creek Road Public School were asked to design, build and recreate significant experiences that had an impact on Canada’s transition toward independence. The students went on a virtual tour of some of Canada’s Heritage sites using Skype and then were given digital lesson plans to work to build their favourite site using Minecraft education edition.

At Indian Creek, the project was titled “An Exploration of Indigenous Contributions to Canada’s Independence.”

Pattison, the driving force behind the project, said about 100 students were involved and spent two months on the project.

One Grade 8 student, Braden St. Pierre said he worked on the Hudson Bay Company part of the project, focusing on the fur trade.

“We made a village like back in that time near the water and made old canoes and a river. We even made a fireplace but weren’t sure at first how to do it, then we decided to use bedrock and torched it to look real,” St. Pierre said. “It was a lot of fun.”

“Technology allows you to do things you couldn’t do before. I’m always looking for ways to make content not only more engaging but get them to realize there is a bigger picture. You can do great work, be innovative and demonstrate your thinking and at the same time do something great for your school,” Pattison said. “The quality of work these students were able to pull together was amazing, but the second part is now all these kids can say they contributed something to their school that other kids are going to benefit from for years to come.”

For the inspiration behind the project, Pattison said there were several events and news pieces in the media that contributed to choosing the topic of Indigenous contributions and alliances, in particular, the Secret Path, a project developed by Gord Downey of The Tragically Hip. Trudy Whiteye coming is as a guest speaker at the school to speak on Indigenous connections and relationships impacted the decision as well.

“I don’t think what we did even scratches the surface on what can be talked about in terms of the contributions that people had to this country but we had a huge group of kids that were fully engaged in what they were doing and I think have a lot better perspective on the kind of one-sidedness that took place in early Canada and that’s not a fantastic part of our history, but ultimately a fact we have to deal with and we have to learn from,” Pattison explained.

In the Takeaway part of the project that outlines what the students ultimately learned, they had this to say:

“When we talk about history, it’s important to recognize the mosaic of culture and experience that Canada has to offer. As we reflect on 150 years of independence, it’s important to recognize how far we’ve come, but also how far we have to go.

“Indigenous contributions to Canadian History are rich and varied. Many of the scenarios we encounter are unequivocally tied to the European experience, an essential hard truth. The Europeans were expansionists – some might say they were users. These projects simply scratch the surface of what we can discover and what we can explore.

“Our history isn’t perfect. It’s full of gaps, holes and chasms – but it’s ours and we can’t change it. We can look back and reflect – celebrate our successes and analyze our failures. They say those who don’t learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat their mistakes. We can only hope that Canada’s future is one of inclusion – for all.”