STEM & STEAM

Minecraft Gets Hub for Teaching Resources

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 05/27/20

Microsoft has compiled a hub of resources for helping teachers and families use Minecraft: Education Edition to teach students at home.

For teachers, the compilation includes links for getting the online game set up. It's free through June 2020 to anybody; or it's available for download by anybody with a valid Office 365/Microsoft 365 EDU account. A link to the Minecraft Remote Learning Toolkit provides access to lessons, curriculum and activities to share with students, along with help on how to use the program in instruction. The site also provides a link to more information about how to hold digital events in Minecraft, including virtual graduations.

Families get access to 15 "build" challenges parents can play with their students, lessons on coding with Minecraft and a parent's guide to the software.

The website is also promoting the Minecraft Education Challenge, a loosely structured event online that encourages teachers to engage their students in longer-term projects around a special problem, such as redesigning the physical classroom to work for students with different learning styles and disabilities or building a more sustainable version of the whole school. The company said it would be featuring some student projects on the Minecraft Education website, in social media and at "Minecraft Live," an annual broadcast scheduled for September.

The "Learning at Home with Minecraft" site is part of the Minecraft: Education Edition website.