Unofficial Minecraft STEM Lab for Kids: Family-Friendly Projects for Exploring Concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

by John Miller, Chris Fornell Scott

Overview

Minecraft + STEM = An unstoppable force for fun and learning!
In Unofficial Minecraft STEM Lab for Kids, you’ll find a collection of 48 creative projects that make learning science, technology, engineering, and math exciting for the whole family. Venture off on six action-packed Quests, each with four unique Labs that pair a hands-on activity with an in-game project.

Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll create and learn about:

Hands-on activities: 
Concoct glow-in-the-dark slime
Grow pipe cleaner snowflakes
Design and build a model Martian habitat
Mix milk and soap to create “fireworks”
Make a working volcano
Create an electromagnet

In-game projects:
Craft a laboratory to serve as your in-game headquarters
Carve a crystal ice castle
Construct a working dam
Design and use a custom teleporter
Build an underwater oceanographic field station

Start with a lesson on terminology and gameplay, learn how to document Lab activities with sketchnoting, and meet five leading Minecraft experts who share how their experiences with the game have contributed to their success.
 
Enjoy Minecraft together -- and harness its powerful potential for learning -- with Unofficial Minecraft STEM Lab for Kids!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631594830
Publisher:	Quarry Books
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Series:	Lab for Kids Series , #16
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	180,483
Product dimensions:	8.75(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

John Miller holds multiple and single subject credentials in history and science. He has been a middle school teacher for over 20 years and has taught every subject in grades 6-8. He also holds a Masters degree from San Diego State University in Educational Technology and Instructional Design and is a Google Certified Teacher, San Luis Obispo County CUE (Computer Using Educators) Board President, and a CUE Lead Learner. John is a featured presenter at conferences and workshops around the country. He loves teaching 21st-century skills to his students, and his passions include student blogging, e-learning, Minecraft in the classroom, photography, Apple, and Google. John is a contributor to Minecraft in the Classroom (Peachpit Press, 10/14). He lives in Paso Robles, California.

Chris Fornell Scott works to design the classroom culture and environment. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer, Google Certified Teacher, President of Santa Barbara CUE, CUE Lead Learner and a CK-12 Champion. He loves using Design Thinking, Agile project management process in the class, and seeing his students enter the flow of learning. He loves to help others in their educational journey. You'll find Chris at conferences around the world presenting on classroom culture, technology, and design. He lives in Santa Maria, California.

Editorial Reviews

I think there’s a mythology that Alzheimer’s is a passive fading away of an individual. Meryl’s book highlights in a personal way the real story, the impact of the disease not just on the victim but on the entire family.

George Vradenburg

Poignant, unflinching….[Comer’s] memoir is deeply personal and all the more powerful for it.

Miami Herald

Relates in very human terms the essence of palliative care. Not only did the author care for her husband with unconditional love, but optimized whatever physical and mental capacities were left to preserve his dignity. Readers will be inspired to want to help both victims and caregivers.

Elizabeth J. McCormack

This is a great love story in an era when love has become an all too shallow emotional commodity. ‘For better, for worse, in sickness and in health’ has never been made more powerful in its deepest sense.

Larry Minnix

An unsparing and moving account of the symptoms of early Alzheimer’s disease and at the same time a call to arms, a memoir and an accurate clinical description....The author’s account will help open readers’ minds to the need for early diagnosis of this devastating global illness.

Maria Isaac

Turning tragedy into art and productive work is a hallmark of the great human spirit. Meryl has done this in a very emotional, engaging and thoughtful manner. The book should be read by all, but especially those with Alzheimer’s disease in their lives.

Howard Fillit

Although [Meryl Comer] would say she doesn’t deserve the recognition, she definitely deserves the ‘Rock Star of Humanity’ award for her caregiving and her humanitarian work.

Florence Haseltine

Meryl Comer’s Slow Dancing with a Stranger takes us into the tragedy that is Alzheimer’s disease and shows what is ahead for nearly half of us who live to age 85. We must respond to this emergency and Meryl courageously shows us why.

Jeffrey Cummings

Meryl Comer’s account is a page-turner; it is wrenching, soul-baring and beautifully written. It should shock the nation into providing more support—both for Alzheimer’s research and treatments, and for the legions of family caregivers who will bear ever-growing burdens in the future.

Susan Dentzer

As a physician-scientist who has studied Alzhiemer’s disease for more than 25 years, and a son with a 99-year-old mom with Alzheimer’s dementia, I recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with the tormenting issues of Alzheimer’s care.

Michael W. Wiener

Slow Dancing with a Stranger is a poignant story of Alzheimer’s disease robbing memory, personality, life and dignity... Meryl’s book is a daily motivation for me personally to find a medicine against this terrible disease which is impacting so many lives.

Professor Dr. Andrea Pfeifer

Meryl Comer is one of my heroes. With unflinching courage, candor, and determination, she eloquently underscores the terrible toll that Alzheimer’s takes on patients and families and the urgent need for us to address this unacceptable problem once and for all.

Eric M. Reiman

Written with great insight and tenderness, Slow Dancing With a Stranger is both a cautionary tale and a call to arms as Meryl Comer helps lead the charge to beat this horrific disease before it beats us.

Ken Dychtwald

Meryl Comer’s heart wrenching story will resonate with the millions of families who know the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease first hand. Her journey makes a powerful and compelling case for the urgent need to support Alzheimer’s prevention trials.

Reisa Sperling

With her trademark honesty and class, Meryl Comer shares her struggles and triumphs in dealing with Alzheimer’s, one of life’s most devastating diseases. In Slow Dancing With A Stranger, she charts paths that others can follow and recharges the public conversation about a pending global epidemic.

Maria Freire

Meryl is a trailblazer in every aspect of Alzheimer’s and it shines through in this wonderful new book chronicling her long and winding journey with this devastating disease.

Dr. Rudy Tanzi

Comer received the Sargent and Eunice Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award in 2004, for her work as a dedicated advocate and remarkable, decade-long caregiver. Fast forward a decade later. In Slow Dancing With A Stranger, Meryl shows what it truly means to stay the course.

Mark K. Shriver

Meryl Comer in Slow Dancing with a Stranger unveils Alzheimer’s Disease in a remarkable and vulnerable way. Her personal story provides knowledge, inspiration and hope to us all. Her heroism jumps out from the pages and hopefully will motivate generations to make a difference against this horrible disease.

David B. Agus

This story is real. Meryl and Harvey are real. I don’t know what it’s going to take to wake the public up to this emerging catastrophe, but I suspect that emotional honesty is a key ingredient. Thank you, Meryl Comer, for telling it exactly like it is.

David Shenk

Slow Dancing With a Stranger is a remarkable and moving story that will change the way our generation thinks about how we deal with aging and caring for those we love. An amazing journey of caring, love, and resilience.

Tom Rath

No silver linings, no phony homages to ‘spiritual growth.’ Meryl Comer writes the unvarnished reality of being exposed as a wife, daughter, caregiver, and potential Alzheimer’s victim herself. Admire her bravery and honesty and applaud her for taking away some of the loneliness of the long distance caregiver.

Ellen Goodman

In an unvarnished account of caring for a husband with dementia, Meryl Comer lays out the struggles and gallantry of a devoted and remarkable caregiver.

Peter V. Rabins

Alzheimer’s disease is a slow killer of the health and spirit of the caregiver- the secondary victim. Comer’s pain is contained in elegant writing and channeled into a worthy purpose. This book is a call to action as haunting and urgent as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Gail Sheehy

An unflinching and intimate account...conveys a sense of passion and even frustration with a society that [Comer] believes has been slow to acknowledge the spread of Alzheimer’s disease or make adequate provisions to tend to its caregivers.

Washington Post

Riveting and necessary.

New York Times

Slow Dancing With A Stranger is the story of how Meryl Comer became an Alzheimer’s caregiver...with no warning, no specific training, and no choice. Read this book to understand Alzheimer’s but cherish it for the story it is, and you will find that every page breathes with her courage.

Barry Petersen

2014-07-01
Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative CEO Comer offers an unvarnished account of her experience as her husband's caretaker after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.The author has testified before Congress, and she is a founding member of USAgainstAlzheimer's, a co-founder of Women Against Alzheimer's Network and a recipient of the 2005 Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award and the 2007 Proxmire Award. Comer, who spent more than 30 years in broadcast journalism, shares the painful reality of witnessing her husband's decline over the past 20 years. Harvey Gralnick was chief of hematology and oncology at the National Institutes of Health, internationally recognized for his work on leukemia. When Comer and Gralnick married in 1978, both of their careers were on an upward trajectory. Twenty years later, at the age of 58, he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. His decline was rapid, as he became increasingly forgetful and at times abusive. For several years before, it had become apparent to Comer and her husband's colleagues that something was wrong, although he denied a problem and refused medical help. Comer chronicles her own confusion and frustration with his behavior. Finally, Gralnick was forced to resign his position, and it became impossible for Comer to maintain her own career while caring for him at home. The author explains why she gives a detailed chronicle of the painful reality of her situation as a caretaker: "I never wanted to embellish or soften the edges around the truth. It does not do justice to the cruelty of the disease." Comer has become an advocate for the need for early diagnosis and treatment for Alzheimer's, which is "pushing past cancer and HIV/AIDS as "the most critical public health problem of our times."A poignant love story with a powerful message.

Kirkus Reviews