Minecraft in educational gaming.

Using Minecraft as an Educational Tool

Core Elements of Minecraft

Welcome back to another entry in Pal's Educational Gaming guides. Today we'll be focusing on Minecraft and how I personally suggest using it as an educational tool. Minecraft has become one the largest and most popular game used in education these days, and if you want to join in on this fantastic tool, but you don't know how to use Minecraft. Don't worry because I'll cover everything you need to know from installing the game to several scenarios that cover multiple subject areas and standards.

1. The following are the core elements of Minecraft, These are the core principles that players do.
1. gathering food for survival.
1. At first players will gather food randomly, collecting it only when needed. However, later on in the game players generally start:
1. Farming
1. Players can plant seeds gathered from various locations to create farms that produce sustainable food.
2. herding
1. Gathering animals with wheat, and then bringing them to pens to start breeding and create a sustainable system(hey looks here is a hint to an education aspect of Minecraft)
2. Players will want to dig deep into Minecrafts block based crust to explore and collect various ores and minerals to use for weapons, tools and building block materials.
1. So as the name "Mine"craft depicts the goal of the game is to explore and mine throughout the world. The deeper you go into the depths of Minecraft the rarer materials you find, the most valued being diamonds. (Another hint towards Minecraft's educational values)
3.  building
1. Have you ever thought why is Minecraft so popular? Well at it's very core there is one aspect of the game done so well that it manages to keep a massive population of people: building. Why? Because it's so simple, you take one block and place it on another, but it's complex enough to make things like this. That image is a full scale replica of Minas Tirith, the last stronghold of man in middle earth. Made entirely with Minecraft blocks.
1. 
   
4. Logic of red stone
1. Another key potential educational avenue of Minecraft is it's rather complex "redstone" power systems. Basically in the game you'll find red stone by mining in the deep depths. This shiny red dust, allows you to create intricate traps, self operating systems and powered rail carts. A good example of this is a RAM simulator in minecraft. Link. Honestly I'm not entirely sure how he made it work, but it's just a sample with what you can do using this system.

So in conclusion Minecraft has an infinity high potential to be used in education as a very very powerful tool that can cover most topics. It's also simple enough for anyone to use and contains the content to keep people forever entertained and educated. There's also a large community of players that make modifications of the game to install additional content, you can find that here. I hope you enjoyed this review, if you find the "Minecraft" label on the side bar you should be able to find exercises that cover standards using minecraft along with an installation guide and eventually modding guides.

As always Pal the Educational Gamer signing out.