Project-based Learning with Minecraft Education

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 By Tracey Brown, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist

The Project


At the start of this school year, like many central office teachers, I was asked to teach a class. I taught a one semester 6th grade science elective called Mission to the Stars. Throughout the course students learn about space exploration, what we have done, what we have planned for future missions, what we have learned and what we hope to learn. The overarching question is, “why are we exploring space?” And the answer (for the purposes of this course) is to find habitable planets, Earth-like planets that we could someday travel to and possibly colonize.

The course culminates with a project in which the students are supposed to design and build a colony on a habitable planet that we have yet to discover. Their project must include 9 elements from throughout our course that colonist would need to survive on another planet:

  1. A research center

  2. A medical facility

  3. A recreation center

  4. Dormitories

  5. Bathrooms/showers

  6. A way to get clean air

  7. A way to get clear water

  8. A way to get food

  9. A way to get energy

What was not clear was what we should use to build this project. I wondered about collecting up Amazon boxes we could cut up and repurpose. Should I ask students to collect toilet paper and paper towel tubes? Does the school possibly have a large enough supply of Lego for 24 students to complete this project? Are we just “building” by drawing our colonies on poster paper?

As an instructional technology specialist I knew I had virtual building tools that we could use. One of the most well-known is Minecraft Education. The challenge for me, like so many teachers, was getting over the fear of using this tool. How do I monitor 24 students to ensure that they are building our project and not just playing Minecraft? The more I thought about it, the more I knew that Minecraft was my no-cost, 3D build solution. So now it was time to figure out how to make it work!


Getting to know Minecraft Education

In order to anticipate and overcome obstacles, I reached out to teachers I knew had used this with students. The first, and best piece of advice I got was to host one world that all students joined. Rather than 24 students in their own world that they ultimately share with me, we can all get into one world and I can monitor them in real time. There are many worlds created for this purpose that give students their own dedicated workspace where other players are locked out but the teacher has full access. I used one called Individual Build Areas created by AACPS 3rd Grade STEM teacher Dan Fitzgerald. The other great advice that I got involved settings to ensure the students could stay focused. Things like setting it to Creative to give everyone a full inventory, turning off Friendly Fire so they couldn’t attack each other in the virtual world, and allowing mobs to spawn so they could build farms if they chose. Finally, I was told to create an exemplar for the students to see what this build could look like, which worked out great because it served my need to practice in the application.


Designing the Lesson

As with most project-based learning it is the planning and resources that accompany the project that lead to success. Asking 24 students to jump into Minecraft and build the 9 required elements without additional guidance was not going to lead to success! I needed to think through the entire build and try to anticipate what they would need.

Here was my planning process:

  1. They need to see examples of how we get food, water, and energy on Earth as well as what is a dorm, recreation center, and so on. So I created a Colony Research guide that had examples they could borrow from; images of water towers, greenhouses, military barracks, solar panels, and rec centers were provided as inspiration.

  2. I made a Colony Planning Document that was required to be completed prior to them accessing the world. They had to include materials they would use to build and a description of each element in the planning document.

  3. The students were given the Rubric to use as a checklist. If they came to me early and said they were finished, I asked them to go through and score their build based on the rubric. If they missed any points they needed to address that part of their build.

  4. Finally, I had to be realistic in my expectations. These are 6th graders who have not studied chemistry. Asking them to demonstrate how colonists would get clean air would not involve a high tech explanation of air purification systems, it would involve some ducts leading to each building with a label that said “Clean Air System.” And I shared this with the class as we were discussing the expectations. I told them creativity mattered and if they gave me a good story, I would follow their imagination.


Honest Assessment

There were issues! Some students' lack of familiarity with the game led to frustration. One student was having trouble placing stairs and despite my efforts to explain where to click and concepts like “rise over run” she struggled, so I showed her the ladders in the inventory as an alternative. Some students had connectivity issues as an update came out to the application right in the middle of our project. I became an expert at power washing Chromebooks to get them logged back in with minimal downtime. Finally, despite our planning, some students just did not have a clear vision of what to build and wasted time on elements not included on the rubric. This was where the benefit of a shared world helped. I carried a clipboard with a checklist and was constantly monitoring their progress daily and make note of students I needed to check in with during our next class to discuss their lack of progress and help them get refocused.

The number one question I know everyone would ask me is, “would you do it again?” That is an emphatic YES! The students had so much fun and so did I. I was impressed and amazed at their builds and the effort that I saw out of every student in that class. I would highly recommend Minecraft Education for student projects. With the right commitment and planning, it actually isn’t scary at all! 



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