Minecraft Plans and Elevations!

This year we have had our first go at using minecraft in teaching maths! Love it or hate it people, are playing minecraft and whilst the addictive nature of the game is a genuine cause for concern, there seems to be a wonderful element of creativity involved along with some real potential for learning! With some yr 7 and 8 mths classes, we thought we would have a little go at seeing how we could use it. We went for something quite simple and used it as a context for exploring the drawing of 3D shapes, plans and elevations! Students made the shapes on my iPad whilst it was being projected and then we had a go at drawing their plans and elevations. With another class, we took screenshots of the shapes from different angles and used them to try and make isometric drawings of them. It is lovely that minecraft allows you to ‘orbit’ what you have built and look at it from different angles. Students then went on to make their own shapes in mincraft for homework and draw the corresponding plans and elevations. Some even did this in minecraft too! This is a real help with what we were trying to do. There is little doubt that, for now at least, the context was deeply engaging! Thats good enough for now, but we will keep thinking about ways to try and benefit from the minecraft craze! Below are some pictures of what we did.