St. John’s Wins First Place in the 53rd Annual California Student Media Festival!

View award winning video by student Paul Schulteis https://youtu.be/Bm-d-onb1g8 After completing our social studies unit on Medieval Europe, students in the seventh-grade were tasked with demonstrating their understanding of the role of a medieval manor by constructing a feudal manor using Minecraft. Minecraft allows students an opportunity to work on mathematics, visual arts, storytelling and digital learning in an engaging environment. Some students gain their first experience learning how to code while others continue to hone and advance their coding ability. Class time was given to students to design their manor. Some students used iPads and others used their laptops. Once the Minecraft design was created students then had to record a four-minute video explaining what life on a manor was like. Many students added a final touch by incorporating medieval music to their video. The projects the students turned in this year were amazing and needed to be viewed by others.I choose to submit several student projects into the 53rd California Student Media Festival (CSMF) competition. Student Paul Schulteis ended up winning in the middle school division of Curricular Humanities. His storytelling, creativity, and technical expertise designated him as the winner of this category. Paul and his project won St. John’s $250.00 to put toward future technology school projects. Technology is evolving everyday and having a state-of-the-art STEM lab allows our students to explore, build and create so that they have an opportunity to develop a passion for science, technology, engineering and math. By Angie Bender, Middle School Teacher