Minecrafting Our Way Through the Renaissance

Part 2 – Implementation

Since my previous Minecraft post, my students and I have busy role playing our characters while learning about the feudal social pyramid and the role of the church in the early middle ages.

My goal is to use Minecraft to complement my curriculum objectives. Students will be role playing medieval, and then renaissance characters, in the virtual world being created by myself, my aides, and a talented high school aged son of a colleague. I will embed lessons and quests within MC that will provide my students with options for learning the required standards.

Canterbury taking shape.

Students will not be required to play MC. I will always provide options that allow for students to explore learning by other means. I do, however, expect to find that many students will want to “live” in our virtual classroom world and that I will be challenged to manage and distribute interactive content on a regular basis.

We are currently preparing to enter our medieval world. Each of my five history classes has their own village based on a real English city. They also have roles to play from duke and duchesses all the way down to peasant farmers.

Looks like a good crop this year

When we finish our studies on medieval Europe, we will move into the renaissance period. At this point I will load up another world we are creating, Tudor London, and all my classes will “live” within the walls of this historic city while we become enlightened.

We end the school year with the Age of Exploration and I intend to send students off to discover and settle their own new worlds.

Next post – Assessments