Natural Resources in a Virtual World: Exploring Social Studies Concepts with Minecraft

Featured in this presentation is a unit designed by four University of Hawaiʻi students pursuing their master's degree with the Learning Design and Technology program. Virtual worlds such as Minecraft provide immersive, exploratory, and experiential learning experiences to connect with subject matter that traditional instruction does not offer. To enhance student engagement and learning, Minecraft is used to supplement a second grade natural resource unit. Lessons in this unit scaffold in technical skills, content complexity, and collaboration. Students will venture on a scavenger hunt to explore and collect various types of natural resources within the terrain and experience role-play of community jobs crafting items that suit each career. Students will then discover and participate in co-creating structures to solve problems within a virtual village community. These activities otherwise would not be accessible to students within a traditional classroom setting.