If you had unlimited time and resources, what would you want to learn, create, invent or investigate?
Suppose you could spend a month or two working solely on a meaningful project of your choice. The whole time, you would have no school, no job, no chores or obligations of any sort. Plus, right from the start, you would have all the materials and space you needed. What would you choose to undertake?
Would your project involve developing your skills, learning about a topic, solving a problem — or perhaps all of these? Would your focus be scholarly, artistic, athletic, community-oriented or something else? Would you learn a language, travel, discover a new cuisine, design or build technology, master a technique or solve a mystery?
In “A Minecraft Player Set Out to Build the Known Universe, Block by Block,” April Rubin writes about a recent high school graduate who dedicated himself to one particular task:
Christopher Slayton spent two months exploring black holes, identifying the colors of Saturn’s rings and looking at his home planet from outer space.
Mr. Slayton, 18, didn’t have to leave his desk to do so. He set out to build the entire observable universe, block by block, in Minecraft, a video game where users build and explore worlds.
By the end, he felt as if he had traveled to every corner of the universe.
“Everyone freaks out about the power and expansiveness of the universe, which I never really got that much,” he said. But after working for a month and 15 days to build it and an additional two weeks to create a YouTube video unveiling it, “I realized even more how beautiful it is.”
Mr. Slayton, known as ChrisDaCow on his Minecraft-focused YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok accounts, has been playing the game for almost a decade, and he’s not a user of any other games, he said. He started posting videos of his “builds,” which are landscapes he creates inside the game, on YouTube in 2019. This channel has become his main priority since he graduated high school this spring.
College may be on his radar, but it’s not time yet, Mr. Slayton said. He’ll be starting a job as a lifeguard soon, while continuing to grow his YouTube content to reach more followers.
With almost 25,000 subscribers on YouTube, Mr. Slayton said the response to this video motivated him to keep pursuing ambitious ideas.
The article also details Mr. Slayton’s methods:
For the video on the universe-building quest, he started off by skydiving to see the planet from a different perspective before working to create his version of the universe. “The only way to truly appreciate the beauty of our planet is by jumping out of an airplane,” he said in the video.
He consulted photos for every detail in the Minecraft universe and relearned math concepts to build his creation to scale, making sure angles and proportions were as accurate as possible. In his first attempt to make Africa, the result was much too small, for example.
Mr. Slayton keeps a notebook and sketchbook on hand to organize his videos, jot down ideas and take notes about the topic he is studying. In the videos, he demonstrates his artistic skills on a whiteboard, such as when talking about the rings of planets while explaining the concept he created in Minecraft.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
What is your reaction to Mr. Slayton’s creation? Have you ever undertaken a self-directed project like this? If so, what did you do and what did you learn? If not, would you like to?
If you had unlimited time and resources, what is a project — whether scholarly, artistic, athletic, community-oriented or something else — you would like to accomplish someday? How would you do it? What do you think you could gain from completing this task?
Do you prefer projects that are assigned to you or those that are self-directed, as Mr. Slayton’s was? Or do you work best when it is a combination of both? How do you motivate yourself when you have something big you want — or need — to finish?
Mr. Slayton said he planned to go to college, “but it’s not time yet.” How do you think his Minecraft experience might prepare him for things like choosing a major, managing his time and completing coursework? How do you think the big projects you’ve completed — or want to complete — might help you in college, at work or in your personal life? Have you ever played Minecraft? If so, what did you build? What did you learn from the experience? Did Minecraft open doors to other interests for you? Did it help you develop skills? If so, which? How do you motivate yourself to finish your projects? What do you hope to accomplish in your lifetime?
Would your project involve developing your skills, learning about a topic, solving a problem — or perhaps all of these? Would your focus be scholarly, artistic, athletic, community-oriented or something else? Would you learn a language, travel, discover a new cuisine, design or build technology, master a technique or solve a mystery?
In “A Minecraft Player Set Out to Build the Known Universe, Block by Block,” April Rubin writes about a recent high school graduate who dedicated himself to one particular task:
Christopher Slayton spent two months exploring black holes, identifying the colors of Saturn’s rings and looking at his home planet from outer space.
Mr. Slayton, 18, didn’t have to leave his desk to do so. He set out to build the entire observable universe, block by block, in Minecraft, a video game where users build and explore worlds.
By the end, he felt as if he had traveled to every corner of the universe.
“Everyone freaks out about the power and expansiveness of the universe, which I never really got that much,” he said. But after working for a month and 15 days to build it and an additional two weeks to create a YouTube video unveiling it, “I realized even more how beautiful it is.”
Mr. Slayton, known as ChrisDaCow on his Minecraft-focused YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok accounts, has been playing the game for almost a decade, and he’s not a user of any other games, he said. He started posting videos of his “builds,” which are landscapes he creates inside the game, on YouTube in 2019. This channel has become his main priority since he graduated high school this spring.
College may be on his radar, but it’s not time yet, Mr. Slayton said. He’ll be starting a job as a lifeguard soon, while continuing to grow his YouTube content to reach more followers.
With almost 25,000 subscribers on YouTube, Mr. Slayton said the response to this video motivated him to keep pursuing ambitious ideas.
The article also details Mr. Slayton’s methods:
For the video on the universe-building quest, he started off by skydiving to see the planet from a different perspective before working to create his version of the universe. “The only way to truly appreciate the beauty of our planet is by jumping out of an airplane,” he said in the video.
He consulted photos for every detail in the Minecraft universe and relearned math concepts to build his creation to scale, making sure angles and proportions were as accurate as possible. In his first attempt to make Africa, the result was much too small, for example.
Mr. Slayton keeps a notebook and sketchbook on hand to organize his videos, jot down ideas and take notes about the topic he is studying. In the videos, he demonstrates his artistic skills on a whiteboard, such as when talking about the rings of planets while explaining the concept he created in Minecraft.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
What is your reaction to Mr. Slayton’s creation? Have you ever undertaken a self-directed project like this? If so, what did you do and what did you learn? If not, would you like to?
If you had unlimited time and resources, what is a project — whether scholarly, artistic, athletic, community-oriented or something else — you would like to accomplish someday? How would you do it? What do you think you could gain from completing this task?
Do you prefer projects that are assigned to you or those that are self-directed, as Mr. Slayton’s was? Or do you work best when it is a combination of both? How do you motivate yourself when you have something big you want — or need — to finish?
Mr. Slayton said he planned to go to college, “but it’s not time yet.” How do you think his Minecraft experience might prepare him for things like choosing a major, managing his time and completing coursework? How do you think the big projects you’ve completed — or want to complete — might help you in college, at work or in your personal life? Have you ever played Minecraft? If so, what did you build? What did you learn from the experience? Did Minecraft open doors to other interests for you? Did it help you develop skills? If so, which? How do you motivate yourself to finish your projects? What do you hope to accomplish in your lifetime?
