Using Minecraft to Build Afterschool
- 1. USING MINECRAFT TO BUILD AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS Davina Kaiser Dexter Lockett Communities In Schools of Brazoria County CIS-ACE
- 2. 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
- 3. LESSONS AT A GLANCE
- 4. APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE…… Incorporate lessons that allow students to explore their mathematical knowledge with hands-on activities.
- 5. 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.
- 6. BE SCIENTIFIC…… Lesson plans that cause students to think about the knowledge they have about living organisms and habitats.
- 7. 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.
- 8. DO THE RESEARCH……. Require the students to research as well as apply the knowledge they already have about specific historical events and places.
- 9. 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.
- 10. TELL THE STORY…… Require the students to read and then recreate the plot or storyline of selected literature.
- 11. 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.
- 13. WEBSITES www.minecraftedu.com PBS Idea Channel – youtube.com
- 14. LET’S TRY IT OUT!