I was in grade 5 when Minecraft came out and I used the iTunes gift card I got for my birthday to get it. Best game ever! My little sister and I would play together, building houses, towns, traps, farms and whatever else we could think of. I have never used Minecraft education, but subconsciously I learned lots from Minecraft on its own. On one of my farms I had food dispenser that dispensed treats for my dogs. This dispenser would dispense the treats completely randomly, teaching me probability. I learned about gravity from blocks falling when I would break the ones underneath them to mine. A large lesson I learned from playing minecraft was area and perimeter. In order to figure out how much wood I needed to fill in my floors, I would figure out the area by using the perimeter.
Minecraft has two different modes, survival and creative. In survival mode, in order to live you have to gather food and collect resources. In creative mode students have access to all of the resources and can fly. These features enable them to build whatever their imagination desires.
As listed in the video by “” by PBS idea channel some other possibilities for teaching in the original Minecraft app is teaching physics by measuring how long it takes a block to drop. Teachers could use Minecraft to teach students about architecture by building famous buildings. Another idea is to give students a task where they must work together but they can only speak in whatever language they are learning.
The YouTube video by the PBS idea channel talks briefly about the Minecraft mod called computer craft which can be used to teach students coding. Another mod I found that could be useful for teaching is the vehicle mod. It introduces planes, fishing boats, motor boats, mining drills, tanks, and many more, each that come with accessories such as cabins, bases, tracks, and more. In order to, to build some of the vehicles students have to make separate parts, like the propeller, engines, tires, and more. One way to use this would be to teach mechanics, physics, the function and properties of a wheel. l and many other lessons. You can also teach young kids what a blueprint is, as one is required to craft each vehicle.
I plan to use minecraft in my future classroom in many subjects. Personally, I would love to use it for teaching perimeter and area, as it’s a great opportunity when students are figuring out how many resources they will need to make the floors and a roof of the students house. Students getting to design their own house is super engaging. The whole game being in blocks makes it an excellent starting point for learning perimeter and area.
Sources
Leave a Reply