Minecraft in the Classroom

Minecraft in the Classroom?

By Jamie Weiss

I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of anything more terrifying than video games in the classroom! Thirty fifth grade kids playing video games, while you are trying to teach and prepare students for statewide testing, is truly a nightmare to think about. As teachers, we like structure and order in the classroom, video games would surely disrupt all learning...think again! Minecraft has made a home for itself in my classroom and I don’t foresee its elimination anytime soon!

I have been 1:1 with iPads for the past 4 years and each year, new ideas for creativity are implemented. When my 5th grade team and I first started thinking about how to incorporate “gaming” into the classroom, Minecraft was the easy choice! I, myself, am not a gamer and truly don’t quite know all the fundamentals of how Minecraft works, but my students sure do! It probably took me two days to create something my students could create in 10 minutes. With that being said, I let my students really drive the creativity and I let go of the control. One thing I have learned about education these days is that it is important for teachers to “let go” of some of the control. When this happens, some serious learning occurs! Ben Ohning, a student of mine, said, “Minecraft is a way to let your mind go wild! Especially when used for purposes like education!” This just shows that there is a place where video games can exist in the classroom. Don’t be afraid!

The first project presented to the students was to create a representation of one of the Colonial regions (New England, Middle, Southern Colonies). The goal of the project was for students to show what they understood about how the colony was formed, the economics of the region, and how this region had an impact on our lives today. I gave the students one week to work on these (1 hour a day at school) projects, which was probably more time than what they needed. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I was blown away by these Minecraft projects! The kids were so engaged in the creations and it made their learning much more memorable! Students were continuing to research about the colonies to make sure that they got their Minecraft project just right! This was a big win for me in the teacher department, they took learning more about the topic into their own hands. They just channeled their love of gaming into enriching their learning! It was truly an awesome learning experience for both teacher and student.

After this project was completed, my team and I started thinking about other ways to incorporated Minecraft into the classroom. We do a huge unit on Native Americans, why not have the students create a representation of the way of life for the different Native American tribes throughout North America! This then spurred our excitement about how Minecraft could be used to create and solve math problems! I guarantee that if you tell a student to create and solve a perimeter/area problem while using Minecraft, their excitement and focus about this math concept will increase 100%! Will McCombs, a fifth grade student, says, “Minecraft is a great thing to use, even for Math! You can make different problems to solve with the blocks!” We also started to challenge the student to create a visual representation of their understanding of our vocabulary words. I was not quite sure how they would do this, but I was wrong! They really started thinking outside the box and used the Minecraft world to enhance their vocabulary!

Minecraft can really motivate those really tricky students that don’t get excited about much throughout our day. Our goal as educators, is to get students to love to learn. Minecraft just helps us accomplish our goal and I highly recommend that you dabble with this concept. Fifth grader, Henry Fruehman, states, “It motivates kids, it puts video games into learning purposes! It is a lot more fun!” I know that not all students enjoy Minecraft and it might not be the best avenue for creativity for all projects, but it definitely give students a lot of creative freedom. Good luck and let student creativity evolve one block at a time!