MinecraftEDU

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All the lessons, ideas and resources related to MinecraftEDU here are FREE and licensed CC-BY Wesley Fryer. In November 2013, my school at that time (Independence Elementary in Yukon PS) purchased 29 licenses of MinecraftEDU software to use in our Win7 computer lab. In 2014-15 MinecraftEDU was one of the stations / centers in my STEM classroom Maker Studio. Also check out my Minecraft STEM Ideas Pinterest board.

If you are a teacher just getting started, check out this official "Teaching with MinecraftEDU" resource page. Also see "Tutorials/Creating a challenge map." In summer 2015 when I became the director of technology for Casady School, we purchased 80 licenses of MinecraftEDU to use in our computer labs. I am continuing to use and update these MinecraftEDU resources both for use at our school, in MinecraftEDU summer camps, and after-school Minecraft activities.

Minecraft in the Classroom by @wfryer ‎(3 May 2017)‎

This website includes a variety of lessons and challenges for MinecraftEDU. In January 2016 Microsoft (which had purchased MinecraftEDU) announced a new version which requires student web logins and appears to integrate with Microsoft365. It's quite a bit different than prior standalone versions of MinecraftEDU. This website currently includes lesson resources for legacy MinecraftEDU program and school server platform. MinecraftEDU 1.7.10 was the latest version we downloaded and still use.

MinecraftEDU House Spanish Labeling Challenge (new for September 2016)

MinecraftEDU Breakout Challenge (new for July 2016)

MinecraftEDU Redstone Engineering Challenge (our culminating semester project in May 2015)

2015 MinecraftEDU Screenshots: April 6 - April 8

2014 MinecraftEDU Screenshots: Aug 22 - Aug 25 - Sep 5-8 - Sep 22-24 - October Geometry Challenge

Why use MinecraftEDU at school? This 7.5 minute video explains the benefits! (via Joel Soloman)

MinecraftEDU Treehouse Challenge

Lesson resources for this project have been moved to a separate page.

Video for teachers: Collecting & Sharing Student MinecraftEDU Screenshots

Geometry Building Challenge (Fall 2014)

MinecraftEDU Building Challenge ‎(Oct 2014)‎

This October students are participating in a three day "Geometry Building Challenge" in MinecraftEDU. Working in teams using the "Group Building Areas (formerly Grade 2 City)" MinecraftEDU world. (Hat tip to Kevin Jarrett!) The three elements of the Geometry Building Challenge are for students to:

Build a house including a living room with an exact AREA of 50 Minecraft blocks.
Build an animal corral or area outside the house with an exact PERIMETER of 24 blocks.
Creatively integrate a HEXAGON and OCTAGON into your build. (Bonus for more geometric shapes!)

PDF - eBook Project for the MinecraftEDU Geometry Project

Check out this 15 minute guided tour of some AMAZING Minecraft Creative Builds by Edgar, a 4th grader in Mrs. McAlister's class!

This Space Shuttle and Galley Ship were built by Shon (4th grade) in Minecraft Pocket Edition.

The MinecraftEDU Controls Quickstart Guide (PDF) is available for students not familiar with Minecraft on a PC.

Orienteering Challenge (Spring 2014)

An end-of-year (spring 2014) activity for my 4th and 5th grade STEM students, challenging them to learn about navigation using coordinates in the world of Minecraft. (Similar to coordinate geometry, but different.)

1 page PDF student handout (Group assignment cards: Dell server - Mac server) - Read more about this assignment in this blog post. :-) Download (via DropBox) this MinecraftEDU 1.6.4 server world to run on your own computer. (This video tutorial shows you how.) The following 11 minute video provides an overview and instructions for the Orienteering Challenge! (Made with Explain Everything on an iPad.)