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
MinecraftEdu SOLVED! -- Hosting an internet Edu server Hi Eric, hi Minecraft Teachers RE: Hosting a remote server > here is my problem that no one has been able to help me with so far: I have paid to rent a Minecraft server from a site called Mooshroom.net - but they can't figure out how to set up their server with MinecraftEdu instead of just Minecraft. After spending some time online with my hosts (the awesome Clinton at AllGamer) and a couple of conversations with EduElfie and Kulttuuri we've finally cracked this one. The quick answer is an extra command line option : -Djava.ext.dirs=.. Below is a full walkthrough showing you how you'd do it yourself. Right now I'm running MinecraftEdu 0.98 on a remote server and administering it all via SSH. So far, I've not missed any server functionality (you can control everything but the map in game I believe) -- but all the options are in text files if you do need them. Here is what I did… I'll also add this info to the wiki. The Solution 4) That'll give you a command line/terminal for the server. m.
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.
Teachers Guide: Five ways Minecraft (and other video games) can boost student writing skills With the recent surge of interest in using video games in schools, I’ve been asked a lot about what gaming looks like in my class. I thought I’d share five ways I’ve used video games, like Minecraft, to help boost student success with their writing skills. Before we get started, I want to make clear that there is much learning happening while people play video games. I posted about that back in 2007, when I started teaching and was thinking about the literacy value in real time strategy building video games. Tons of learning happens while students are playing games: strategic thinking, trial and error experimentation, scientific reasoning, and more. But that’s not going to help you come report card time. So, how can educators use video games in an inquiry-based, student-led way that will help support their literacy skills? Graphic organizers, like webs, are great to kickstart post-game writing activities. 1. 2. Students create diagrams of their planned shelter in Minecraft 3. 4. 5. Liam
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