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This wiki is devoted to hosting ideas, lessons, implementation strategies and more related to using the game, Minecraft in a school setting
Whether you use it in a computer/gaming club, as part of your regular curricular instruction, or even at home with your own children, Minecraft's simple yet scalable "sandbox" virtual environment can be an excellent tool for engaging student learning. The open-ended nature of the game lends it to application in a variety of subject areas. Game-based learning, virtual worlds, and simulations are emerging tools for reaching our learners.
That's why this wiki was created. Are you an educator who also plays Minecraft? Perhaps you're considering using the game in your school or district. Do you have ideas about how Minecraft could enrich your teaching while providing a fun and exciting game world for your students? Then join us and share those ideas! This is an opportunity for crowd-sourced lesson building!
-Lucas Gillispie, Director of Academic and Digital Learning, Surry County Schools.
Castle Wars - A TNT-Cannon, Team-based challenge. (world download link inside)
The Driving Range - A TNT-Cannon range game designed to teach the basics of cannon design. (world download link inside)
(11/10/15) - Here's a Sustainable Community Project we're working on at Gentry Middle School. It focuses on sustainable, green building in different regions of North Carolina.
(2/11/13) - Major updates to the Hosting Your Own Server page and the Accounts and Account Management page to reflect the current status of the project and to provide more detailed tips for other schools who wish to get involved.
(12/18/13) - Great tutorial video on how to level in mcMMO by Aidan. Check it out!
(12/8/13) - Lots to share! First off, this month, we launch our first Community Challenge created by one of our student miners, Countdown to MineChristmas. This project, developed by Hayate12, celebrates the holidays with an Advent-styled challenge to rebuild Santa's village, with new components added daily.
We have a number of tutorials added by our community in recent weeks:
Minecrafter, Wandser, shares this tutorial on how to utilize hoppers:
Minecrafter deerhunter0 has shared a brief guide on how to invert redstone and use it to create a lamp that will turn on at night with a daylight sensor:
(11/15/13) - Our elementary learners will be participating in the Minecraft City Construction Challenge as they learn about urban, suburban, and rural regions. Ideally, this experience would allow them to discuss and handle the city zoning, but since their time is so limited, that was set up ahead of time. Should be exciting to see what they create!
(11/3/13) - Our November event has launched! Redstonia! Details are here - http://goo.gl/8AJIZu
(10/18/13) - One of our awesome Minecrafters created this great video showing off our survival world:
(10/2/13) - Gillispie - So, Minecraft is rocketing in Pender County Schools! More schools are getting involved. Topsail Middle just launched their Minecraft club, initially, a fully online club, and it's booming! Welcome to all of the new faces!
We also launched our first monthly server event last night, The Town of Deadwood! The Town of Deadwood is a community build event in which all players are invited to assist in the building of a haunted (and deserted) town (in the spirit of Halloween). It should be exciting! Want to see our announcement flyer? You can find it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16Ry36DMAIarAKirE-3UECM6tCmDfubZ6s9Seu8r-iPk/edit. I can't wait to see what they create!
(10/1/13) - Gillispie - This year, our Survival server has had a makeover. We've relaunched it with some exciting new changes. First off, though Towny was a fun plugin, the majority of players seemed to want to go back to a more "vanilla" survival experience. So, this year, we launched a brand new world with a great seed (link here). We created a brand new server ranking system and are actively exploring ways to gamify (and learn-ify) the experience. We've added the MCMMO plugin that lets players "level up" skills like mining, archery, etc., and have implemented a new "Guide" program in which students can be nominated by a teacher to be a server Guide, indicated that they are "helpers" for new players. My amazing build team from Pender Early College High has been providing great assistance in building our server spawn area, a town called SpringHaven (pictured below). Our biggest goal this year? Building community! To that end, we're planning monthly events including contests and community builds. It should be exciting!
(6/2/13) - Gillispie - Exciting to be sharing our students' creations at the e-Virtuoses serious games conference in Valenciennes, France this week!
(1/7/13) - Gillispie - Looking for an interesting way to integrate the fun of Minecraft with learning about elements from the periodic table? What if you could create items, in-game, with those elements? Sara Toothman has created a great lesson that encourages students to imagine! Get it here - Elemental Minecraft.pdf.
(1/3/13) - Gillispie - If you haven't seen Sara Toothman's video of her students' creations in Minecraft in the Fall, check it out!
(11/20/12) - Gillispie - Added more information to our Bukkit Plugins Page about the plugins we're using on our Creative and Survival Servers.
(6/19/12) - Gillispie - Added a Cost and Budget page to assist with budgeting for your own education-related projects. Updated Hosting Your Own Server with more resources and added a Bukkit and Plugins page to share information about the plugins we're currently using on our Bukkit servers in PCS.
So, our Minecraft projects are spawning new, creative game-based learning projects in our schools! Take a look at Sara Toothman's Kickstarter project to bring more game-based learning to her students at West Pender Middle School! While you're at it, why not pledge $5 to make it happen?
(4/24/2012) - Gillispie - Here's a video showing off some student and teacher creations:
(4/2/2012) - Gillispie - In addition to our first Minecraft explorers, Minecraft projects are now underway at Burgaw Middle School , Pender Early College High School, and soon Heidi Trask High and Cape Fear Middle School. Exciting times!
(1/25/12) - Gillispie - So much going on since my last update. So, here's what's new:
PCS Minecraft Grants
Pender County Schools offered its teachers the opportunity to apply for a Minecraft grant which would cover 25 student licenses to the game. Teachers simply had to explain how they'd use the game and connect it with their curriculum. Here's the reference page I created for the application process. The three schools that won grants include: Topsail Elementary School, Cape Fear Middle School, and Pender Early College High School. We're excited to be bringing new learners into our Minecraft learning community.
West Pender Middle Launches Their Minecraft Program Today
Sara Toothman, Art Teacher at West Pender Middle will be launching their Minecraft program today! Students will be using the game to explore a variety of concepts including journaling/creative writing, 8-bit art, structures/building, and more. We're really looking forward to seeing what our kids create!
5th Graders from Topsail Elementary School's Second Year Program Share Their Creations
These kids did phenomenal work. It was awesome to work with these guys as many of them had their first experiences in Minecraft. Take a look at what they created:
(12/6/11) - Gillispie - Here's a great example of using Minecraft for modeling a concept. Notice the level of engagement, here. Do you think these kids "get it?" Also, looks like he's running MinecraftEDU's server! Awesome!
(11/22/11) - Gillispie - Great fan-made advertisement for Minecraft. This pretty much captures the essence of the game.
(11/4/2011) - Gillispie - So many projects going on that I've neglected updates here. So, here's what's up: Sara Toothman of West Pender Middle School here in Pender County has won a grant to start their own Minecraft project. This project funded by the Bright Ideas program will allow us to purchase a Mac Mini Server and 25 Minecraft accounts for the school. Our YouTube video from last year has exploded recently in the number of views (over 17,000 as of this post). I really appreciate the comments, mostly from students from around the world. Remember, learning doesn't have to be boring!! MinecraftEdu launched today!!!
(8/11/2011) - Gillispie - Come to Games in Education 2011 in New York, August 22 - 23, to learn more about Minecraft and how it's being used in schools!
(8/8/2011) - Gillispie - Development of our Minecraft Project for Pender County Schools is underway. Currently developing a small curriculum in 3DGameLab!
(6/8/2011) - Gillispie - Our students showing off their work:
(6/3/2011) - Gillispie - Our test project here in Pender County Schools is wrapping up. Here's a slideshow of some of the students' creations. You can click on the slideshow to view larger versions of the images:
(4/16/2011) - Groom - Disaster as Mr10 builds a rather great build, only to die in lava and respawn unable to re-locate. So ... I've been looking
Which is a n00bish cheat, however, with WorldEdit, you'd be able to map spaces for specific learning instances and build fast.
(4/15/2011) - Gillispie - Added a guide for setting up a local Minecraft server in Ubuntu to Hosting Your Own Server, written by one of our techs, Loren Macon.
(4/6/2011) - Gillispie - Excited to welcome a number of new folks to the wiki. It's very exciting to see a community of practice forming! There's a growing momentum thanks to Joel's work and the publicity it's received.
(4/5/2011) - Gillispie - Added a Skins, Mods, and Texture Packs page. I added some information to the Skins section based on my experiences, but could use assistance with the Mods and Texture Packs sections since I've not yet attempted those. Also added a Games in Education Resources and Research section with resources on getting started and supporting research.
(4/4/2011) - Gillispie - Created skins for the students at both schools to use using MCSkinEdit (read more here). Set up male/female versions and matched "uniforms" to school colors! Fun!
(3/23/2011) - Gillispie - Moving forward! Check out Melanie McBride's excellent Explorer's Journal for Minecraft learners. It's great. Also, I learned this morning that one of our amazing PCS techs is writing up a step-by-step on setting up your own Linux-based Minecraft server like we did. Woot!
(3/21/2011) - Gillispie - Added PCS Test Run - Lesson Ideas page. We begin our first use with students (sort of a beta phase?) on April 8th. The approach with our 5th graders will be somewhat less structured.
(3/19/2011) - Gillispie - Check out Rob Newberry's reflections on using Minecraft in an education setting - Learning With Minecraft.
(3/16/2011) - Gillispie - Worked through issues preventing the game from launching on our district Dell 330 computers. Updating the graphics drivers fixed the error we were getting at launch. Added a Computer and Software Considerations page with a few more details. Updated Accounts and Account Management page with suggestions. "Ned," our internal Minecraft server was launched today and seems to be working very well.
(3/11/2011) - Gillispie - It looks like we may have a trial launch for 5th(?) graders in early April, running Fridays until the end of the year. Very exciting. We're currently working out the scheduling logistics and logistics with server hosting. More details to come.
(3/9/2011) - Gillispie - Added several pages, though content needs to be added. Feel free to edit where you feel comfortable.
(3/9/2011) - Gillispie - Minecraft in School Wiki is launched! Now to find more contributors!
Minecraft and all of the screenshots are property of Mojang. Go buy the game! You'll love it.
Welcome to the Minecraft in School Wiki!
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