Lesson Guide - A428 Creative Game

Introduction

This game is designed to be played in lunchtime or after school clubs. It is an open design world where students can complete challenges over the course of days, weeks, or months. The player is given the role of ‘design intern’ and asked to explore 3 different challenges.

Learning Objectives

  1. To use the creative mode to design new things within the themes of future roads and ecology.

Guiding Ideas and Questions

  1. What will vehicles of the future look like, and how could you design roads for them?

  2. Motorways of the future, what technology will be needed, and how will it function?

  3. What would you like to see along the side of motorways and roads to promote natural habitats?

Performance expectations

The students will creatively build different things in response to the three challenge questions.

Lesson Structure

Part 1 –

Before they start please explain what Highways England does -

'Highways England manage and improve England's motorways and major A roads, helping our customers have safe, smoother and more reliable journeys. We're the government company which plans, designs, build, operates and maintains England's motorways and major A roads, known as the strategic road network (SRN). Make up of 4,300 miles of motorways and major A roads which are at the core of our national transport system.'

Students will spawn into the Highways England offices. Here they can interact with the NPCs (non-player characters) who will either give them bits of information or say generic greetings.

Allow them to explore for 5 minutes.

At the end of the 5 minutes get them to go to the large computer at the end of the offices and wait there. They are not to click on the computer, or teleport to the scheme, until the next part.

Part 2 –

They will spawn onto the Blackcat Roundabout on the A428 road scheme. In front of them will be boards with instructions. They are being tasked to complete design challenges. They can pick which challenge they would like to do first and then use the game to design their ideas.

This game is designed for students to complete the challenges over longer periods of time during lunchtime or after schools’ clubs. For example, they could spend one term on the first challenge, the next term on the second and another term on the third. It is up to the teacher/instructor to give them the time limits that they think best fit their students.

Part 3 –

There is a structure block included in the world for the students to use. The structure block allows them to save their designs as 3D files. Instructions for the block are available in game, and are as follows –

The block to the right is a structure block, anything built inside the lines it creates can be exported and saved on your desktop. Right click on the block to adjust the box to build inside. When you’re done, right click on the block and export your design. Only designs built inside those lines will be able to be exported.