MinecraftEDU - STEM Curriculum Resources by Dr. Wesley Fryer MinecraftEDU Redstone Engineering Challenge (our culminating semester project) 2015 MinecraftEDU Screenshots: April 6 - April 8 2014 MinecraftEDU Screenshots: Aug 22 - Aug 25 - Sep 5-8 - Sep 22-24 - October Geometry Challenge Geometry Building Challenge (Fall 2014) MinecraftEDU Building Challenge (Oct 2014) MinecraftEDU Building Challenge (Oct 2014) Build a house including a living room with an exact AREA of 50 Minecraft blocks.Build an animal corral or area outside the house with an exact PERIMETER of 24 blocks.Creatively integrate a HEXAGON and OCTAGON into your build. Orienteering Challenge (Spring 2014) An end-of-year (spring 2014) activity for my 4th and 5th grade STEM students, challenging them to learn about navigation using coordinates in the world of Minecraft. Perimeter / Area Building Challenge (Spring 2014) Introduction to MinecraftEDU MinecraftEDU Introduction MinecraftEDU Introduction Other Lesson Ideas
Game-Based Learning to Teach and Assess 21st Century Skills Game-Based Learning, and particularly serious games that teach content, are fast becoming utilized in the classroom. Frequent success stories are appearing, from Minecraft in the elementary classroom to games that teach civics. There is curriculum that pairs World of Warcraft with language arts standards, and many other variations where the gaming focus is on content. Collaboration MMOs are hugely popular. Communication All of the games above, which require collaboration, also require communication. Critical Thinking/Problem-Solving Well-designed games require players to solve a variety of complex problems, some of which require standards-aligned learning and some that simply require general critical thinking and problem-solving. We must find time for students to play these games in and out of the class to teach content and 21st-century skills. One of the biggest misunderstandings about games, and people who play them, is that games don't "teach" anything.
Could Minecraft help kids get smarter? When Rob Patrick’s then 7-year-old son Riley started asking to play Minecraft two years ago, the Edmonton-based radio morning show host and his wife had no idea what he was talking about. After asking around and doing some research, they decided Minecraft was much better than most of the other gaming alternatives because it was creative and had no violence. “What we weren’t warned about,” Patrick says, “was how addicting it is for boys that age. It's a concern many parents can relate to — Minecraft is a phenomenon, with over 100 million users. Teachers are drawn to the game because it has educational benefits that encourage active, rather than passive, playing and can teach coding to children. But its potential to be a time-suck for children and its possible privacy issues surface early and often in conversations with parents of children who play the game. Educational benefits? “I think Minecraft has a lot of potential as a teaching tool. An educational community of Minecrafters
MINECRAFT IN A HUMANITIES CLASSROOM Global Religions Course Each religion was taught over a one month period and included the following: Early History, Geography, Spread of religion, Branches, Key People, Key Events, Branches and Modern History, Core Beliefs, Symbols, Rituals, Holidays, and Festivals. Students selected one Eastern and one Western religion to compare and worked in collaborative groups to research a sacred site. Students wrote essays on the topics listed above, as well as on their sacred site. Students replicated their sacred sites in MInecraft Edu and designed a game in which their two religions were taught and compared and in which the players' knowledge and learning was tested. Students presented their work to younger peers first, took feedback and made changes. Students presented their final work in an evening event to their families.
Games to Teach Financial Literacy Financial Literacy Month is April -- just around the corner -- and it's never too early to prepare. Personally, I believe this is a great opportunity to use games in an intentional way to teach students financial literacy skills. Games can be used as a "hook" or anchor activity, as well an instructional activity that is revisited throughout a unit of instruction. Fellow Edutopia member Brian Page (on Twitter @FinEdChat) has long been an advocate for financial literacy education and innovative ways for students to engage in it. Bite Club In Bite Club, players manage a "day club" for vampires. Save for retirementPay down debtManage current consumption Brian says, "I prefer Bite Club as a game-based learning day alternative, and as an anchor activity. Gen i Revolution Gen i Revolution was developed for middle school and high school students and is managed by the Council for Economic Education. "I believe Gen i Revolution is best for middle school students," Brian tells us. Financial Football
Crafty Ways to Use Minecraft at School | Learning Starts Maybe your child is one of the thousands hooked on Minecraft, a video game that lets players build with textured cubes in a virtual 3D world. Players can also explore seemingly endless worlds and time periods, gather resources, craft, and engage in combat. What you may not be aware of is the inherent educational potential of the game. Common Sense Media describes Minecraft as “an open-ended, exploration and creation focused environment…Players can create items and buildings from scratch using materials they harvest from the world around them…Kids can learn creative thinking, geometry, and even a little geology as they build imaginative block structures in this refreshingly open-ended mining and construction game.” Third grade teacher Jennifer Bond discovered the educational value of the popular video game almost by accident. In addition to using Minecraft’s scale game to build an accurate model of their bedrooms, Jennifer’s students used Minecraft to study:
Official Minecraft Wiki – The ultimate resource for all things Minecraft Serious Tips for Using Serious Games in Class Experts on issue-oriented computer simulations offer advice on how to do it right. We asked some serious-game experts about how teachers can get the most out of them in the classroom. Here's their advice: Do a Dry Run First, give yourself some gaming homework. Let the Kids Go Nuts Make sure the students get enough time with the game to thoroughly explore different scenarios and make their own mistakes. Have a Postgame Plan "No matter what the game or the subject, the important thing to do is to use the game as a catalyst for something else," says Ian Bogost, associate professor of computational and digital media at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who is also an adviser for the Serious Games Summit at the annual Game Developers Conference. Help students link the game's content to events in the real world with classroom talks and writing assignments or by providing other media, such as documentaries and news clips. Encourage Open Conversation
Minecraft blowing up the classroom; educators say the game can teach everything from math to genetics | Pass / Fail At New Los Angeles Charter School last year, seventh graders learned the humanities by founding their own civilizations - and living in them. "That was a project where the kids, in groups, had to work together to survive without starving or running out of a food supply," said teacher Dan Thalkar, "and then slowly build their own society and civilization with all of the aspects that actual civilizations have." They weren’t dropped off on a deserted island. The students used the popular computer game Minecraft to build those civilizations. In creative mode, Minecraft users roam through different settings and build freely. The charter school project culminated in the seventh grade students developing an economy and trading system with the other groups in the class. "Minecraft is useful in the classroom because you can use it for pretty much anything you want," Thalkar said. Thalkar and other teachers are beginning to use Minecraft to teach concepts in math, science and the humanities.
The Heist | Adventure Map (for 1.8.7 & 1.8.8) v1.4b Minecraft Project LEGAL PERMISSIONS: You are allowed to record The Heist, however please have the decency to link to the map link. You will be doing your audience a favor as well as the creators of this map. You have to realize that what took you 3-4 hours to play took us 350 hours to make. So please don't be a douche and share the love. MINECRAFT VERSION: This map has been created and tested for 1.8.7 & 1.8.8 without mods. Running this map in ANY other version of Minecraft is not recommended. LANGUAGE SUPPORT: (Change you ingame language in Minecraft setting and the translations happen automatically) DESCRIPTION: In the Heist the player tries to avoid security systems such as cameras, guard robots, lasers, sonar etc in order to steal valuable prototypes from a high security underground research facility. The Heist is a very unique game that relies on over 6000 command blocks in order to work and is one of the most advanced maps released to date.