Do your students love coding, history, and solving mysteries? Check out this new, free Hour of Code from Minecraft Education Edition. Dubbed “Timecraft,” the lesson teaches students basic coding concepts while learning all about history. The game challenges them to learn these skills while correcting “mysterious mishaps throughout history.”
According to the website, students will “travel back in time to save the future in this free Hour of Code lesson in Minecraft: Education Edition. Players will choose their own adventure and connect with great innovators and inventions in science, architecture, music, engineering, and more.”
According to education news site The Journal, Timecraft will also teach students:
- why computer science is important and why they should learn it
- how to use “algorithmic thinking and problem decomposition” to solve problems
- computer science concepts including “sequences, events, loops and debugging”
- all the different computer science careers they can choose from
Three lesson modes are available: One for in-class with a teacher facilitator, a second in-class mode that is self-guided, and a third that is virtual, with each mode requiring “different levels of teacher support and modification for student success and participation.”
The game also includes a helpful resource for teachers such as an “introductory video, an educator guide, student-facing presentation slides, coding solutions, extension activities for integrated CS lesson plans and Kahoot quizzes.”
Minecraft also includes a general resource for educators who want to learn how to teach with Minecraft.
Watch the Timecraft video.
Check out the newest hour of code lesson on the Minecraft Education Edition website. Also check out IEEE TryEngineering for more STEM lesson plans.
