Minecraft: Education Edition Teacher Academy

There are no rules, players can simply be creative and explore as they learn.

Educators can set up learning outcomes within game features like Chalkboards where students can learn, interact and connect with content from classroom instruction while in the game.

Game-based learning meets students where they are and where they want to be. For example, educators can provide learners the opportunity to engage in play that challenges them, giving the students room to be creative and “fail forward,” as well as letting the learners take risks that iterate along the way.

Many educational games expose learners to targeted content through real-world situations and help learners develop essential life skills.

The knowledge acquired through game-based learning is retained at a higher rate than other methods of learning. Game-based learning allows students to engage with standards-based concepts in a playful and dynamic way.

Understand movement keys: W- Move forward, A- move left, D- move right, S- move backwards, Spacebar- tap once for jump, double tap and hold for flight, E- inventory (gathering items for building), C- engages code builder, Shift- sneak.

Students can customize game skins to make their avatars represent themselves.

Allow students to explore in a world that does not have any potential harm to their creations.

Download a world file in minecraft, they will look like .mcworld they are considered templates until you modify them to share with students

Different world can be downloaded to navigate students through particular lessons

Once a world file is downloaded, it is saved to the device being used not to a cloud

Sharing allows teachers to browse the great content in our in-game library and share with students in Microsoft Teams and Classroom in a fast and exciting way!

Students can continue building on another device by exporting and saving the file on a USB, Cloud, or shared file storage system

There are features that make it easier for educators to assign students specific worlds from in game or from the website

Assessment: Minecraft: Education Edition offers educators and students many opportunities to reflect on learning outcomes and make adjustments along the way that show progression of the learning.

The Camera is a great tool to use for assessment of a build, completion of a challenge, or as a point of reference for future building.

The Book & Quill is used for housing pictures with captions and longer text, giving students an opportunity to record adventures, tell stories, and demonstrate knowledge, allows for deeper student reflection

The various sized Chalkboards can be used to provide content, instruction, or elicit feedback

Educators can use the Resource Link to attach information that will engage, guide, and assess students while in game play or once game play is completed.

Students can use NPCs to relay content or guide visitors to important information on a topic of study.

Minecraft: Education Edition build challenges offer a great way to engage students and educators in creative projects, problem solving and celebrating the community. Build challenges present an opportunity for educators to use Minecraft to inspire students in core school subjects, addressing local issues, or solving real-world problems.

Minecraft build challenges start by posing a challenge and inviting students to design solutions (design thinking)

Classroom Build Challenges can be used by Whole Group, Small Group, or by individual students.

Working together on challenges gives students the opportunity to build collaboration and communication skills.

A teacher can use a Build Challenge with the entire class focusing on a specific content.

Classroom Build Challenges can be used by students on an individual level within the classroom or virtually. A teacher may assign a classroom build challenge in conjunction with content as an assessment, as an extension activity to learning, or as an incentive to enhance 21st century skills.

Teachers can assign a challenge to students individually. This gives them the opportunity to address content or assessments in a personalized way. (differentiation)

When you are preparing to do a lesson, there are two ways to use Minecraft lessons in your classroom: Have students use a template world, such as a Biome or Blocks of Grass, for lessons that do not need a pre-built world. Or assign a pre-created lesson World found in the 'Lessons' category in the in-game library, or from the Minecraft: Education Edition website.

Using minecraft to teach lessons can make content more visual and engaging, similar to the use of manipulative.

Be creative when looking for lessons based on your content area.

Think about the following when implementing a minecraft lesson into your classroom: How does the lesson plan support your content specific learning outcomes? In what ways might you modify and adjust the lesson plan to ensure relevancy to your learners? What tools within the in-game world experience provided opportunities for learners to engage in ways that might not otherwise be possible? What out of game materials are needed for the learners to use before or during the lesson?

Collaborative Gameplay allows groups to be immersed in the virtual world of Minecraft: Education Edition while collaboratively planning and constructing.

Today’s world is fast-paced and in games—like Minecraft: Education Edition—players are chatting, operating a character, following long-and short-term objectives, and making quick decisions.

Minecraft: Education Edition can be played in Collaborative Gameplay mode meaning more than one learner can be playing within the same world at the same time.

Multiplayer is when more than one player is working, building, and interacting in the same world.

Can be used in pairs, small groups or whole class

Having a structure for collaborative work is necessary in order to engage all learners and encourage equitable learning experiences. One way to encourage all learners in collaboration and communication during game play, is to create classroom roles.

It's recommended that, when first introducing Minecraft: Education Edition to the class, a class contract or charter is created.

Create a list of Classroom Community Guidelines with your students.

Take the time to prepare your world before you use it with your students.

Support your online work with offline documentation/instructions and tasks.

Build unstructured time into your lesson.

Balance structured activities with choice.

Treat a lesson with Minecraft: Education Edition like any other lesson that has set routines.

Have an introductory session with students to go over the rules, gameplay mechanics, and how we use Minecraft in the classroom vs. at home.

Go over some classroom rules and realities.

Pair students based on their performance in Minecraft after the first session so that they can help each other during the activity.

Pick creative mode over survival mode.

Set time limits from the beginning and be strict about implementing this rule.

Have a clear and realistic objective in mind of what you want to accomplish when using Minecraft.

Don't skip the planning time with your students.

Ensure that all students in the class have a login and are able to access minecraft on their device.

The skills of reasoning, logic, computational thinking, and structure of a programming language can prepare our students for not just technical jobs in the future but to bring their ideas to life to make the world better via technology.

Research suggests; Coding drives innovation, Coding allows students to be creative problem-solvers, Coding builds confidence, Coding is best learned early, Coding translates to success in other areas, Coding allows students to explore basic computer science (CS) terminology.

Teaching students to code within the game is important because it can be used across curricula or with a variety of subjects.

Coding in Minecraft: Education Edition is easy through the use of the Code Builder.

Computational thinking skills.

Chemistry in Minecraft allows educators and learners to explore chemistry within the immersive world of Minecraft in a fun, accessible way that may not otherwise be possible in some classrooms.

You can represent elements in several ways and differentiate between elements.

You can identify when a chemical reaction has occurred and determine what elements, molecules, compounds, and mixtures were used.

You can also conduct investigations and evaluate the experimental design.

Often experiments that could be done in the lab are difficult to do (for many reasons). However, lab safety is something that can still be addressed in Minecraft!

Coordinates allow you to teleport between locations in case you get lost in this expansive world.

The Element Constructor allows you to create elements based on their atomic structure - with sliders to choose the number of protons, neutrons and electrons.

By using the Element Constructor, you can create 118 elements from the Periodic Table as well as over 400 stable isotopes.

The Chemistry Lab Journal provides a reference guide for educators or learners on how to use the Chemistry Resource Pack in Minecraft.

Redstone is the Minecraft equivalent of electricity. Knowing the basics of redstone allows you to create amazing inventions.

Redstone is one of the more advanced concepts in Minecraft.

You can obtain redstone dust by mining redstone ore underground.

You can spread this dust across the ground as wire, attach it to levers or doors, and craft it into torches and repeaters to build machines.

Students can use redstone to make Rube Goldberg Machines

Redstone power comes from a power source, and can be transmitted to devices which will then do something in response.

Most types of blocks can become powered. Blocks can be powered when they contain a power source, or when they're attached to a power source.

Students who use redstone in the classroom will have a better understanding of an engineer's perspective when accomplishing a given task.

When learners use redstone to connect to learning goals, even if they aren't part of the lesson, the educator will have an understanding of what is possible with redstone.