Building Virtual Space

5/28/2020

Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00 Head of Community Engagement

Longing for familiarity of Trinity campus, students create online version with Minecraft

Mason Forness ’22 and Gareth Lockwood ’21 have a close-knit group of friends who share lunch each day during school. With online learning, there is not the same opportunity to be in a physical space together. Mason and Gareth, along with a group of friends, decided to focus on what they could do rather than what they could not.

They have been working together for about four weeks on creating a map of Trinity through the Minecraft video game series. This work dovetails nicely with the kind of problem-solving and building that they do as members of the award-winning Trinity Robotics team. Joining them in their work were Annabelle Porner ’22, Anne Kinsey Wash ’22, and Emery Lauer ’22.

The project is painstaking, as things are created to scale. “We started off with a top down map of Trinity to which we put a grid where each square was 3 meters x 3 meters in real life,” says Forness. “This matters greatly because each block in Minecraft is 1 meter x 1 meter. After the planning portion, we started building the paths, court yard, and the outlines of every building.”

Forness says his motivation derived not only from a social standpoint, but also from a love of Trinity’s campus. “I’ve always loved the way the buildings around campus are designed and thought that they would be cool to recreate,” he says. Initially, Forness and Lockwood worked together to finish off the floor plan. They were then joined by Porner, Wash, and Lauer to make everything 3-D.

Ideally, says Forness, the Trinity community will be able to enjoy this virtual experience. “I’m hoping that once we are able to release the world to our peers, that people will enjoy walking around the virtual campus and maybe even call some of their friends to hang out with them. We will also be working on releasing this world with a way to download it if people want to play alone or just with a selection of people.”

These students have done all of this while attending school through remote learning. For them, these projects are a nice outlet when other avenues are closed. Though their immediate world may have grown smaller, these students have found ways to share their talents in a broader scope than ever before. Says Forness, “ It's been really fun to work with friends and build the school I enjoy so much and learn more about how everything is shaped and how interesting the architecture is.”

Back

- Minecraft: Forness/Lockwood/Porner/Wash/Lauer
  
  Minecraft Tour of Trinity Campus

About “Connections”

Connections is a regular online column, written from the first-person perspective of Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement:

In this space, I have the privilege of sharing stories of Trinity students, alumni, and faculty and staff who are carrying our mission beyond the boundaries of campus. Many of these stories might not make the headlines, but they will illustrate how every member of the Trinity community has a unique path to discover, and the ability to make an impact on both the Trinity community and the world beyond.

I am fortunate to have been a part of this community since my own adolescence. I have been a student, a teacher, a coach, and an administrator, and in these roles I have witnessed the school’s growth and evolution through the years. We have grown in size as well as spirit.

Stories here will capture how seeds planted at Trinity have taken root and flourished into full-grown passions. You’ll also read stories of those in our community who bring their gifts from outside to help us learn. At Trinity, we seek to develop lifelong learners, and stories here will illustrate real-life examples of that beautiful symbiosis.