This wiki is devoted to hosting ideas, lessons, implementation strategies and more related to using the game, Minecraft in a school setting.
Whether you use it in a computer/gaming club, as part of your regular curricular instruction, or even at home with your own children, Minecraft's simple yet scalable "sandbox" virtual environment can be an excellent tool for engaging student learning. The open-ended nature of the game lends it to application in a variety of subject areas. Game-based learning, virtual worlds, and simulations are emerging tools for reaching our learners.
That's why this wiki was created. Are you an educator who also plays Minecraft? Perhaps you're considering using the game in your school or district. Do you have ideas about how Minecraft could enrich your teaching while providing a fun and exciting game world for your students? Then join us and share those ideas! This is an opportunity for crowd-sourced lesson building!
-Lucas Gillispie, Instructional Technology Coordinator, Pender County Schools, NC
Quest Atlantis (QA) is a learning and teaching project that uses a 3D multi-user environment to immerse children, ages 9-12, in educational tasks. Building on strategies from online role-playing games, QA combines strategies used in the commercial gaming environment with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. It allows users to travel to virtual places to perform educational activities (known as Quests), talk with other users and mentors, and build virtual personae. A Quest is an engaging curricular task designed to be entertaining yet educational.
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center released new research from the Games and Learning Publishing Council initiative. They conducted a series of video case studies and a national survey, Teacher Attitudes about Digital Games in the Classroom, undertaken in collaboration with and support from BrainPOP®. Each video case study shows an individual teacher who integrates digital games into his or her curriculum in exciting and innovative ways. This video features Ginger Stevens, a 6th grade special-education teacher at Quest2Learn in New York City. This video case study shows how she utilizes the intentionally game-like environment of her school to maximize learning for students with special needs.
Talks about kids interacting with each other AND digital images projected onto the floor and connected to the computer. Essentially a floor-based white board
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a game called Where in the World & What in the World is Money? For high school students Monetary Mania is a game in which students can test their knowledge of economic theories. Beyond the games, teachers will find complete sets of lesson plans for teaching lesson economics to middle school and high school students.
If you're in need of a good visual representation of the World's economic outlook, check out the IMF's Data Mapper. The IMF Data Mapper allows you to see the current, past, and predicted distribution of wealth around the world. Use the slider tabs on the IMF Data Mapper to change the map's display.
Applications for Education
The IMF's games for students are fun tools for students to play and test their knowledge after you've conducted an economics lesson. The Data Mapper provides students with an excellent view of the distribution of wealth around the world.
Quest Atlantis (QA) is an international learning and teaching project that uses a 3D multi-user environment to immerse children, ages 9-15, in educational tasks. QA combines strategies used in the commercial gaming environment with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. Participation in this game is designed to enhance the lives of children while helping them grow into knowledgeable, responsible, and empathetic adults. Explore our site and learn more about this exciting project.
Buffalo Public Schools (NY) recently selected DimensionM™ education video games to supplement their math curriculum for 12,000 students in 45 schools. The district will begin using the games during the upcoming summer school session and continue in the fall.
Educational licenses are available at no cost to educational institutions. Contact cyberciege@nps.edu. If you are a student, ask your teacher to request the game. A free evaluation version of CyberCIEGE is available.
"Classtools.net allows you to create free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge!"
ABCya! is a leader in free & exciting computer activities for elementary students to learn on the web. All educational computer games and activities were created or approved by certified teachers! Activities are modeled from primary grade lessons and enhanced to provide an interactive way to learn. The activities incorporate content areas such as math and reading while introducing basic computer skills. Many of the kindergarten and first grade games are equipped with sound to enhance understanding. You can also find great elementary holiday activities here! Holiday activities available in grade level sections!
Are your kids inquiring young scientists who are always curious about the world around them? If so, the following websites are just what you need. They contain some of the best science games for kids online. Each of them are fun to explore and play with, but they also have a sound educational base.
These interactive whiteboard games are a great way to review units of study in the classroom. All are based on popular TV shows and are fun and engaging for the whole class. Download the templates, customize them to your own needs, and you will be ready to play these great games on an interactive whiteboard or LCD projector.
"Stu's Quiz Boxes (for Windows) might remind people of the TV gameshow, Jeopardy!, but it's not that, it's much better than that. You can use it to make an exciting, interactive and educational computer-based gameshow available to everybody. It can be used in so many different situations - in schools and colleges, at conferences and parties. But the main use is expected to be in classrooms, that's why Quiz Boxes is all about POINTS, not DOLLARS. There is no link to gambling like there is with that other game."