MINECRAFT EDUCATION: WW1 TIMELINE PROJECT

Gamification of a WW1 unit to engage students, build empathy, and demonstrate competence.

Students enter an immersive environment in which they build a WW1 timeline in Minecraft Education. The objective of the timeline will be to represent different perspectives of individuals involved in a war and demonstrate how physical environment and past experiences act as a driving force behind a person's perception of an event. It is a unique way to develop empathy and engage students.

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Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Updated March 2023

Web presence

2019

Established

60 2024

2

Countries

Students upper

Target group

I hope to see an immersive learning experience!

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

I created this innovation to allow for a more immersive and interactive learning experience, encourage collaboration and teamwork among students, and to build empathy. I saw a need to innovate the unit on World War 1 and for students to come up with their own narratives to demonstrate their understanding of the unit.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

My solution addressed the problem by having students demonstrate their learning through research and creative building in Minecraft. By using gaming technology to provide a first-person perspective of the characters (foot soldier, civilian, nurse, and a military/political leader, etc.) involved in during each stage of the war, students became engaged in the learning process.

How has it been spreading?

I love seeing the excitement of the classroom when I first introduce this project. It started in 2019, and I have been polishing and updating the lesson plan ever since. My goal in the next 2-3 years are to continue to build on ways we can engage students in learning.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

If someone wants to adopt this solution, they can reach out to me via email. I am more than happy to share resources!

Implementation steps

Explain

Explain to the students that they will be creating a WW1 timeline in Minecraft Education based on the concepts they have learned in the unit. The objective of the timeline will be to represent different perspectives of individuals involved in a war and demonstrate how physical environment and past experiences act as a driving force behind persons’ perception of an event.

Investigate

Each group of students generates a list of characters representative of their country and individual members of the group select one character whose perspective they will be presenting.
Teams frame their research and investigation as well as to select their pathway for learning and how they will show competency. Teams are given autonomy to collaboratively brainstorm, research, and create a cohesive account of events told on behalf of their chosen character during five stages of WW1: 1914-1919

Join Minecraft World

Introduce Minecraft Education to students: 1) sign-in, 2) world join, 3) online behavior and norms 4) teams selector 5) building tools.
Students work in teams to decide how they will represent their timeline of WW1. The characters (foot soldier, civilian, nurse, and a military/political leader, etc.) provide a first-person perspective of the events they are involved in during each stage of the war.

Coaching

The teacher/instructor provides one-to-one coaching throughout the process to support individual student goals. Students also collaborate with other teams to learn building strategies as well as advanced features of Minecraft Education.
Students continue to build and revise their timelines, continuously reevaluating their work to ensure that the accounts of events told by the characters are cohesive and congruent with each other.

Students have a choice to share their finished timelines to be later used as models / templates for students who are beginning a WW1 unit next semester.
Students choose how they complete a self-reflection survey. Students can choose to record / film / storyboard / write their self-reflection.