Here is an article about how to use Minecraft for education. It doesn't have ideas for simple addition and subtraction, so it doesn't solve my problem with my student, but it has some good ideas that apply to early elementary geometry.
- Explore a theater (or other building) and label the parts
- Practice ration and proportion (set a scale to build things, determine the volume of object built)
- Learn about survival
- Visualization and reading comprehension
Additionally, here is a Huffington Post article about why video games are actually good for you. I'm not sure I could justify playing just based on the reasons they give, but it's something to consider anyways.
If anyone can think of a way to teach basic addition and subtraction using Minecraft examples please comment. We were working on borrowing in subtraction problems.
Citations
Miller, Andrew. "Ideas for Using Minecraft in the Classroom." Edutopia. 2014 The George Lucas Educational Foundation, 13 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
"Minecraft." Minecraft. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
In Minecraft there are different plants that you can find in your environment and plant to cultivate for yourself. For example, it is not uncommon to end up with grass or wheat seeds. You could use this in your lesson. You could create a situation where a child has a certain amount of seeds that he has collected from the environment and only plants some of them. You can use this as a subtracting problem, subtracting the seeds he has planted from the seeds he initially had in his inventory! There's an idea (:
ReplyDeleteI have never played Minecraft but I think the idea of incorporating videogames in classes would be interesting. I think it would have to happen eventually with all of the technology exposed to students. Has any schools tried to use videogames to help teach students?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information about the farming Kylie. That could definitely tie into a lesson about sustainability in use of natural resources, or could turn into a math story problem like you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteSam, I am not sure about any particular school off the top of my head, but I remember seeing a lot of google results targeting high school classrooms. They are using the video games for cooperation and team building in the project-based learning classrooms. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I have an e-mail in to Dr. Wong in the College of Education about this topic, as I believe he is researching this topic (or at least has connections to someone who is). I will let you know if I hear back from him.
I've actually played Minecraft a long time ago and I just find it funny you are actually using it as some type of way to educate our younger minds. It takes one creative mind to think like that. I hope you make a free post explaining more into detail how you did it.
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