Building a Historical Landmark

1 hours

Building a Historic Landmark

Developed by Roblox

Explore history by researching a historical landmark and building it in Roblox Studio.

8 - 10 Social Studies

English 2-4 hours

ISTE Standards: Innovative Designer 4a, 4c, Creative Communicator 6b, 6c

Learning Objectives:

Use online sources to gather specific details about a landmark
Apply research to plan out a landmark design and construct it using 3D models and landscapes
Evaluate the scale of a landmark in Roblox Studio and use observations to ensure realistic proportions

Skills and Concepts:

Pre-production - Planning out projects, such as drawing sketches, to create in a software like Roblox Studio
Scale - The relationship between a real life physical object and it’s 3D representation

Getting Ready

Preparation:

Make sure each student has a Roblox account and knows their login information
Have lesson tutorials somewhere students can access, like as bookmarks on their computers
Print out handouts
Collect images of ancient wonders or landmarks to present in the Introduction

Materials:

Windows or Mac Computer with Roblox Studio installed
2 button mouse with scroll-wheel
Handout: Roblox Studio Cheatsheet
Paper and pencil per student

Lesson Overview

5 min	Introduction	Introduce the project and lesson structure.
15 min	Guided Work Creating a Plan	Have students research a historic landmark and collect details to build in Roblox Studio.
1 hour, 30 min	Independent Work Creating Landmarks	Students will go through tutorials as needed for their project and use that knowledge to build landmarks.
10 min	Wrap Up	Recap the lesson and share student work.

Lesson Plan

Introduction 5 min
Grab student attention by presenting images of historic landmarks. Point out may not be able to visit or see many of these landmarks - may be damaged or expensive to travel there. Call out students will get to make their own historic landmark to explore in Roblox! Outline the steps in creating the historic landmark. Will first use the internet to research a landmark and creating a planning drawing. Using the drawing, will re-create that historic landmark in Roblox Studio.

Introduction

5 min

Grab student attention by presenting images of historic landmarks.
- Point out may not be able to visit or see many of these landmarks - may be damaged or expensive to travel there.
- Call out students will get to make their own historic landmark to explore in Roblox!
Outline the steps in creating the historic landmark.
- Will first use the internet to research a landmark and creating a planning drawing.
- Using the drawing, will re-create that historic landmark in Roblox Studio.

Guided Work - Creating a Plan 15 min
Lead students through Planning the Landmark - Researching a Landmark. Ensure students have specific details written down. If a detail is not specific (Has a roof), ask guiding questions about shape and color for specificity (Roof is orange, square tiles). Continue with Planning the Landmark - Creating a Plan. If students finish quickly, encourage them to add at least two more details or draw the people they would expect to live near that landmark based on research.

Guided Work - Creating a Plan

15 min

Lead students through Planning the Landmark - Researching a Landmark.
- Ensure students have specific details written down. If a detail is not specific (Has a roof), ask guiding questions about shape and color for specificity (Roof is orange, square tiles).
Continue with Planning the Landmark - Creating a Plan.
- If students finish quickly, encourage them to add at least two more details or draw the people they would expect to live near that landmark based on research.

Independent Work - Creating Landmarks 1 hour, 30 min
Lead students through Planning the Landmark - Setting Up the Project. Explain that students will independently go through tutorials to learn about Roblox Studio based on what they need in their landmark. Set criteria for the final project: Should have all details created from their planning drawing. The landmark should be of realistic scale when play-testing. Allow students to go through the following tutorials to prepare for building their projects: Creating Buildings with Parts Using Terrain Tools Adding a Light Source Creating Trees and Plants Have students work on creating their final projects. Remind students to playtest with their character and check the scale and proportions of their structure. Point to their reference images collected in "Creating a Plan" if needed.

Independent Work - Creating Landmarks

1 hour, 30 min

Lead students through Planning the Landmark - Setting Up the Project.
Explain that students will independently go through tutorials to learn about Roblox Studio based on what they need in their landmark.
Set criteria for the final project:
- Should have all details created from their planning drawing.
- The landmark should be of realistic scale when play-testing.
Allow students to go through the following tutorials to prepare for building their projects:
Have students work on creating their final projects.
- Remind students to playtest with their character and check the scale and proportions of their structure. Point to their reference images collected in "Creating a Plan" if needed.

Wrap Up 10 min
Recap what students have created and vocabulary: pre-production and scale. To showcase work, have students trade seats with a partner and let them explore their world.

Appendix

Troubleshooting Tips
General Troubleshooting Tips Introduce students to “Ask 3 Before Me”: a student needs to ask three peers before asking the instructor for help. If students have trouble moving parts, like one part won’t go through the other, remind them to check if their Collisions are on or off. Change them to the opposite as needed. If parts fall over when playtesting, remind students to turn Anchoring on for that part.

Troubleshooting Tips

General Troubleshooting Tips

Introduce students to “Ask 3 Before Me”: a student needs to ask three peers before asking the instructor for help.
If students have trouble moving parts, like one part won’t go through the other, remind them to check if their Collisions are on or off. Change them to the opposite as needed.
If parts fall over when playtesting, remind students to turn Anchoring on for that part.

Customizing the Lesson
General Tips: While this lesson plan allows students to find any landmark in the world, it can easily be customized to a specific unit you’re already teaching, such as exploring Asian History or World Wonders. Depending on what you want to teach, you can omit or highlight certain tutorials. For example, students can just build a structure and not explore terrain or props. While this lesson allows students to independently explore tutorials, you can decide on a set of tutorials to cover as a class before letting students start their final project. Simplify the Lesson Reduce the number of tutorials students can do. We recommend Building Structures with Parts and Using Terrain Tools to build the most foundational skills Expand the Lesson Encourage students to add something to their landmark inspired by each tutorial (a structure, terrain, plants, and a prop). If student finish early or “feel done”, encourage them to push themselves to add more details to their work. Help them brainstorm ideas for props to build that would be historically accurate in their project.

Customizing the Lesson

General Tips:

While this lesson plan allows students to find any landmark in the world, it can easily be customized to a specific unit you’re already teaching, such as exploring Asian History or World Wonders.
Depending on what you want to teach, you can omit or highlight certain tutorials. For example, students can just build a structure and not explore terrain or props.
While this lesson allows students to independently explore tutorials, you can decide on a set of tutorials to cover as a class before letting students start their final project.

Simplify the Lesson

Reduce the number of tutorials students can do. We recommend Building Structures with Parts and Using Terrain Tools to build the most foundational skills

Expand the Lesson

Encourage students to add something to their landmark inspired by each tutorial (a structure, terrain, plants, and a prop).
If student finish early or “feel done”, encourage them to push themselves to add more details to their work. Help them brainstorm ideas for props to build that would be historically accurate in their project.

Misc. Resource
Course Description: With over 60 millions players a month, Roblox is the world’s largest social technology platform. But did you know you can recreate history using the same tools that build Roblox games? Research a historical landmark, like the Greek Parthenon or Great Wall of China and use your knowledge to create a world you can explore in Roblox Studio. In this course, your student will: Research a historical landmark online and gather specific details that will help them construct a 3D environment. Apply their research to create a pre-production drawing that includes major features of a landmark. Construct 3D models and landscapes that apply collected research.

Misc. Resource

Course Description:
With over 60 millions players a month, Roblox is the world’s largest social technology platform. But did you know you can recreate history using the same tools that build Roblox games? Research a historical landmark, like the Greek Parthenon or Great Wall of China and use your knowledge to create a world you can explore in Roblox Studio.

In this course, your student will:

Research a historical landmark online and gather specific details that will help them construct a 3D environment.
Apply their research to create a pre-production drawing that includes major features of a landmark.
Construct 3D models and landscapes that apply collected research.

These documents are licensed by Roblox Corporation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Roblox, Powering Imagination, and Robux are trademarks of Roblox Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries.

Next Planning the Landmark