Use Minecraft to:
help middle school learners develop interest in STEM
help learners understand what it means to think scientifically
build knowledge in Astronomy by investigating the cause and affect of Earth Systems and Earth's place in the universe
understand what it might mean to have a career in STEM.
This module begins by having students participate in an embodied Astronomy exercise. While the exercise could benefit from a mixed reality design similar to what students experience in MEteor, at least having students move in a prescribed way that points to connections between movement and abstractions can lead to new conceptual knowledge (Lindgren & Johnson-Glenberg, 2013). While video games can provide many cognitive, emotional, and social benefits, a majority do not incorporate physical movement. Tying physical movement to the concepts provides another modality of learning the concepts that can then be understood again in the context of Minecraft.
Video games have been shown to exhibit great pedagogical practices (Ferguson, 2019). For example, games offer benefits to learners by:
Motivating learners by being fun and engaging
Allowing them to take risks and to fail productively
Providing learners opportunities to collaborate, problem solve, and be creative
Incorporating playful values can lead learners to be open, curious, and enjoy learning. Games not only offer opportunities they lead to real results, such as prosocial skills through rewarding of cooperation and support; improvement of mood, relaxation, and anxiety relief; and cognitive gains in attention allocation and visual processing (Granic et al., 2014). Empirical evidence has also shown the ability of games to improve learning.
Through value-added research, features of games have been isolated to measure the effect such features have on learning. In Mayer (2014) the principles of personalization, pretraining, coaching, and self-explanation are shown to enhance learning in games, as compared to base versions of games not featuring such principles. This learning module incorporates these aspects into its design to support learning and player agency.
Games have potential to be intrinsically motivating, where learners voluntarily choose to play a game because they enjoy it. Habgood & Ainsworth (2011) have shown, through use of Zombie Division, that an intrinsically integrated game that seamlessly blends educational factors and game elements both leads to improved learning and increased interest in playing the game. Middle school learners who played the intrinsically integrated version showed retained math ability on a delayed test, and in a free choice setting most students opted to play the intrinsically integrated version over other activities. Games have the ability to improve learning and draw attention from learners.
As previously mentioned, games can be motivational forces for learning, and this is due in part by their ability to trigger learner interest. The game, FactorReactor, an arithmetic-based digital game played by middle school students, resulted in improved math fluency outside the game and increased situational interest in math (Plass et al., 2013). This shows games can go beyond enjoyment through triggering interest and motivating learners to reengage with the domain. Early situational interest can lead to individual interest, where the learner voluntarily engages content, derives individual curiosity questions, and seeks advice and feedback (Hidi & Renninger, 2006). Interest is conceived as a psychological state of increased focus and attention, as well as a motivational factor that prompts learners to reengage over time. The impetus of using Minecraft is to trigger and sustain interest in STEM.
This module incorporates the use of ICAN probes to support the development of science interest and problem solving, and such probes have been shown to improve science learning, regardless of initial interest levels in science (Renninger et al., 2014). Students who respond to more ICAN probes are those who are seen to have greater changes in science learning, and such results were seen in populations of at-risk youth. Incorporating ICAN probes has potential to promote interest development and deeper understanding of science concepts among youth. Measuring interest can be very valuable for instructors, as it offers a glimpse at whether or not students found value and relevance in either the way the material was presented or the material itself (Hogheim & Reber, 2015). This can be a good marker for an instructor to use in order to assess if they are keeping students interested and transmitting the intended knowledge.
Minecraft is a sandbox game that allows players the freedom to explore and build freely in Creative Mode. The game also features a Survival Mode for players looking for challenge and adventure. Minecraft is currently the second best-selling game of all time with over 112 million players monthly (Tassi, P., Forbes.com, September 2019). Not only popular, Minecraft boasts connections to many different domains of science from engineering to Biology, Math, and Physics (Lane & Yi, 2017). Minecraft has been used successfully to increase engagement and interest in science among middle school-aged youth (West & Bleiberg, 2013). It is conducive to creative thinking through open-ended questions and the possibility of collaborative or individual play. With such a great deal of flexibility, players can design freely and endlessly.
This module is meant to be used with middle school students. This is an age where many students disengage with STEM because for a variety of reasons related to competence and identity, and triggering and sustaining interest at this stage can be critical to keeping learners engaged with STEM (Renninger, 2009; Maltese, Melki, Wiebke, 2014). Through utilizing this module, learners should gain knowledge of Astronomy, display increased interest in Astronomy and science broadly, and have a deeper understanding of what it means to work in a STEM profession.
In accordance with Next Generation Science Standards (MS-ESS1 - Earth's Place in the Universe & MS-ESS2 - Earth's Systems), students will gain knowledge of the following Disciplinary Core Ideas:
ESS1.A: The Universe and Its Stars - Patterns of apparent motion of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky can be observed, described, predicted, and explained with models.
ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System - The solar system consists of the sun and a collection of objects, including planets, their moons, and asteroids that are held in orbit around the sun by its gravitational pull on them.
ESS2.A: Earth's Materials and Systems - All Earth processes are the result of energy flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet's systems. The planet's systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size.
ESS2.D: Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things.
Furthermore, learners should understand concepts of cause and effect to predict phenomena and design systems. Learners will see that models can be used to represent systems and their interactions. Learners will also develop an appreciation for the interdependence of Science, Engineering, and Technology. Learners will role-play in a specific science profession to frame explanations and design solutions to an Earth Systems problem.
For my research we use modded versions of Minecraft to trigger student interest in science, as well as build learner knowledge about Astronomy concepts. I am using one of our modded worlds, "Earth with No Moon" to develop a module for educators to use in the classroom. While the worlds are existing creations, we do not currently have any shareable lesson plans or modules for learners or educators to access. I will be taking the concepts we incorporated into the game and develop an educational resource. To transform the experience I will be adding the following:
In-game surveys that students can complete through gameplay
Embodied experience to teach Astronomy concepts
Role-playing - students will be given a "job", such as engineer, physicist, food expert, astronomer, city planner, or business leader. Students will watch a video about their role then engage others in discussion on how they should plan their town.
Each learner should draw their plan on a piece of paper, and then carry out the plan in Minecraft.
Players will need to make observations and pose questions, which can then be answered by the teacher, who is monitoring what is happening in the game.
After an allotted amount of time, students will discuss their experience with their teacher, including successes, challenges, and what they might do differently.