Minecraft, by nature, facilitates deeper understanding of many mathematical concepts. This page is a repository for lessons and ideas for using Minecraft as a mathematical teaching/learning tool.
Lessons
(Under Construction)
Ideas
- Number Theory and Counting (blocks as units)
- Addition and Subtraction of unit-blocks
- Basic Algebraic Equations
I have 60 wooden planks. How many doors can I make?
I have 64 Iron Ingots and 32 Redstone. How many compasses can I make?
- Perimeter & Area of 2-dimensional figures
- Surface Area & Volume of 3-dimensional figures
- Cartesian Coordinates
- Slope
Comments (4)
pnplatt@gmail.com said
at 8:47 am on Apr 13, 2011
pnplatt@gmail.com said
at 8:55 am on Apr 13, 2011
Basic math functions can be taught as students track their Minecraft inventory. For instance, my son recently asked me to help him figure out how many iron ingots he had in his inventory. He said he had 8 iron bullion (cubes?) and 3 iron ingots (yes, he does a lot of mining). He explained that each bullion is a mass of 9 ingots. “Hello nine times table!” I exclaimed. I promptly went over ways you can get to the nine times answers. We worked out how many ingots he had, and how many he'd have left if he used xx bullion to build this or that. He was clearly engaged and learning, in a way he never was when he worked through some of the silly/contrived word problems he used to encounter in math workbooks!
palinCraft said
at 3:44 pm on Jun 3, 2011
Hello there, nice to meet you all..
A not so new idea about mathematics and minecraft is the hole bung of redstone.. AND, OR and NOT for the beginning and going on to more complex elements.. and they can be fun too.. f.e. with Noteblocks.. The Students/Kids have to set up the right speed and have to calculate the delays etc.. for more basic math, or do calculators in minecraft to learn binar calculating and stuff..
Alone with the delay of redstone comes different ideas for test/questions/equations.. like the good old fashioned way "Two trains start at different points...."
(sorry for my english, i'm from germany and i have a little bit of knwoledge deficit with the right vocabulary for so special threads like math..
EduElfie said
at 7:08 pm on Feb 9, 2012
The old question "I have XX amount of fencing, what is the largest area I can fence in? What if it backed onto a wall? could be very easily demonstrated in Minecraft.
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