USING MINECRAFT TO BUILD

AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS

Davina Kaiser Dexter Lockett

Communities In Schools of Brazoria County

CIS-ACE

Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math are

more important than ever in a student’s education.

This session will raise awareness of providing innovative,

intriguing, and interactive activities to develop high

quality after school programming.

Minecraft: a game with no rules, and endless imagination

minecraft

OUR GOALS FOR TODAY

LESSONS AT A GLANCE

APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE……

Incorporate lessons that allow students

to explore their mathematical knowledge

with hands-on activities.

MATH: MEASUREMENTS

Minecraft allows students to build whatever they want. Use the

game to have them create scale models to practice concepts in

measurements, proportions, area and perimeter. The building

of scale models might integrate social studies content to allow

for cross-curricular connections. Coupled with in-class lessons

and activities, Minecraft can help students apply the

knowledge they have learned in technological and playful ways.

BE SCIENTIFIC……

Lesson plans that cause students to

think about the knowledge they have

about living organisms and habitats.

SCIENCE: ORGANISMS AND HABITATS

You can contextualize the concept of survival for students by

having them play the survival mode, which demands players

take into account resources, hunger, tools and more as they

build and expand their world. Students have to explore in order

to collect resources, and they have to process what they find,

such as smelting ore to create metal.

DO THE RESEARCH…….

Require the students to research as well as

apply the knowledge they already have

about specific historical events and places.

SOCIAL STUDIES: HISTORICAL PLACES

There are many already-created structures that you can import into the

game and have students explore. From the Roman Coliseum to the Globe

Theatre, they can wander through and literally see three-dimensional

replications of buildings that are no longer there. You might have students

identify aspects of a theater, or use it as a tool for presentations. If you

really want to go nuts, have students create these models themselves.

TELL THE STORY……

Require the students to read and then

recreate the plot or storyline of selected

literature.

READING: COMPREHENSION

One of the best ways to improve how students display their

reading comprehension is asking them to create a

visualization. They could reconstruct various settings from

the text, and even recreate scenes and plot events. They

could also use these recreations to give a presentation or

make predictions on what might happen next, and then

physically create those predictions in Minecraft.

REFERENCES AND LINKS

WEBSITES

www.minecraftedu.com

PBS Idea Channel – youtube.com

LET’S TRY IT OUT!