Notes

Minecraft: The Maker's Game



Minecraft: the game of makers

by Samantha Jamison



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Students in Assistant Professor B. Reeja Jayan’s upper-level engineering class learned the fundamentals of materials science by playing Minecraft instead of being in a lecture-based classroom.



Instead of learning the principles of materials science in a traditional lecture environment, students of Assistant Professor B. Reeja Jayan's higher-level engineering class learned their concepts in a context that was based on games playing Minecraft, a computer game that lets players build worlds out of virtual blocks.



In her special topic course titled Materials and Their Processing for Mechanical Engineers, Jayan "fills in the gaps" for mechanical engineering students who have no knowledge of the science of materials.



Jayan says that material science is a discipline that mechanical engineers are usually not familiar with. "This course teaches students how materials have a specific internal arrangements of atoms and how processing techniques can alter the structure which can result in different properties such as mechanical behavior and strength."



Minecraft has allowed me to see the science of materials in a very concrete way.



Jayan states that mechanical engineers must to comprehend how the processing and properties of materials affect the atomic structure in order to appreciate mechanical science and the design of materials. Because traditional lab courses are usually difficult to plan (due to safety issues or lack of equipment or the absence of personnel), Jayan utilized a game-based teaching methodology to ensure that her students would still benefit from a learning environment that is hands-on.



Jayan says, "When you make materials it's similar to building things." "Minecraft lets you become an inventor. You can build anything you want. The game includes specific elements that help students understand the characteristics of the materials they construct with. I was trying to use the building culture to help students visualize ideas and think about the things they were building and how they could do it in a real-world scenario."



Minecraft is appealing to a wide audience due to the possibility of customizing their own playing experience in an open-world "sandbox" environment. Contrary to games that are developed in a linear way (where players move neatly from one checkpoint to the next), Minecraft encourages players to explore, roam and interact with their environment making use of tools and materials to modify and change their surroundings. In Minecraft players come up with creative solutions to problems they encounter when creating their own structures.



Students complete their final Minecraft project at the end of the semester by designing their own games and rooms on the classroom server. Students are asked to create unique projects that illustrate the principles of materials science in an interactive way. Students developed games last semester that required students to create materials using the latest materials processing and synthesis techniques. Other students made crystal-based museums and replicas of steelmaking factories. Students can gain an understanding of the basic principles of materials science through completing these complex projects.



@b_reeja's Minecraft course allows students to show their work to middle school students. @CMUEngineering pic.twitter.com/0BGk7kBhyj



"Minecraft has helped me understand materials science in a very tangible manner" says MechE junior Genevieve Parker. I was awed by the ability to explore an object and view the contents in three dimensions. It's hard to beat the interactiveness that is a part of the Minecraft classroom. The ability to build and think creatively in assignments for homework and the project I was working on pushed me to learn and kept me occupied as I did my work."



While some Minecraft teachers have used the game in their classrooms, few college professors have integrated it into their curriculum.



Jayan says that there are no other instances of Minecraft being used at university levels other than the University of Texas at Dallas or CMU. "The primary difference with us is that it's the first time that Minecraft has been integrated into a course in engineering full-time.
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