Davina Kaiser- Communities In Schools of Brazoria County Texas ACE conference 2013 Austin, Texas

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.

12. REFERENCES AND LINKS

13. WEBSITES
www.minecraftedu.com
PBS Idea Channel – youtube.com

14. LET’S TRY IT OUT!