An immersive, large-scale virtual field course for zoology students
Minecraft Millport is a collaboration with NeuronSafari, @NeuronSafari (Twitter). It gives students experience with fieldwork in a field like no other. Check out these articles in the TimesHigherEducation and this TeachingMatters blog.
Minecraft Millport takes place on Dumbrae Island, a 1:25 scale modification of Puerto Rico with four working beaches that vary in exposure:
![Stacks Image 3](files/stacks-image-781e11c-948x458.jpg)
Tutorial Island Introduces the students to the local flora and fauna, and gets them used to the controls:
![Stacks Image 9](files/stacks-image-741d1a6-1200x336.jpg)
Millport town contains a central transportation hub, and social spaces:
![Stacks Image 20](files/stacks-image-7872623-1200x470.jpg)
A flight though the hub
Beaches contain 100's of animals both on the surface and within rock pools
![Stacks Image 27](files/stacks-image-184efcc-1200x658.jpg)
A flight across Clashfarland Beach
Data has been synthesised and inserted into the game: turtle size and distribution is gaussian, diversity in rock pools is poisson. Special tools, such as the carrot-on-a-stick allow students to extract data from entities
![Stacks Image 37](files/stacks-image-b42e67e-640x372.jpg)
The Eco Lab allows students to study behaviour: food choice or responses to temperature gradients
![Stacks Image 57](files/stacks-image-c3dc3a7-1198x338.jpg)
TrapCams capture wildlife venturing onto the beach, while weather stations allow the collection of temperature variation data
![Stacks Image 70](files/stacks-image-97e3895-1200x342.jpg)
End of Course Class picture, Field Zoology 2021
![Stacks Image 52](files/stacks-image-8ad6afc-1198x706.jpg)