MINECRAFT 101

LET’S BUILD INDIVIDUALLY

WELCOME TEACHERS

Today’s 60-minute workshop

is to introduce and give you a
starting point to integrate
Minecraft: Education Edition
into your instruction!

Make sure you’ve downloaded

Minecraft: Education Edition
from aka.ms/download.
AUDIO CHECK

You should be able to hear music playing. If you don’t,

check your audio settings in Teams by selecting the
ellipsis icon in your meeting toolbar.
 DOWNLOAD
WE DO

Please go to
aka.ms/download and
select download in the top
green menu bar. Choose
your device and install!
INTRODUCE YOURSELF

On a scale of 1 to 10, how ready are you to use

Minecraft: Education Edition in your classroom
or education setting?
2

1 10
ONLINE WORKSHOP SETUP

If joining workshop
virtually, it is helpful to
see both windows.

Use screen or two

devices if possible.

6
MEET YOUR TRAINER

[Your Name]

@Trainer Twitter handle

@PlayCraftLearn
@MicrosoftEDU

Trainer LinkedIn
MicrosoftEducation
PARTICIPATE IN A TEAMS MEETING

Show chat Access Mute or

messages Additional unmute
call controls yourself

Show / add Raise your Turn your video Share screen

participants hand feed on/off. & sounds
from your
computer
TEAMS MEETINGS BEST PRACTICES

Keep your microphone muted until needed.

Should your video be on? It’s up to you!

Consider your background and bandwidth.

Keep your microphone muted until needed.

Keep your microphone muted until needed.

9
MINECRAFT 101

AGEND
A 1

2
Our goal: Get familiar with Minecraft: Education
Edition and prepared to teach your first lesson with it

Experience a Lesson: We will model Build a

House Challenge and then you will BUILD just
like your students

3 Plan a Lesson: Break apart the lesson plan and

make changes as though you were going to
teach it yourself
METHOD OF INSTRUCTION
- I AM SIMULATING AN
HOUR-LONG LESSON THAT
YOU COULD REPLICATE
WITH YOUR CLASS –
INCLUDING THIS DECK!
HOW WE’LL WORK TOGETHER

I DO WE DO YOU DO

Walking through Walking through you recreate the

steps and steps and you’ll steps we learned
you’ll watch follow along to do it yourself
WHAT IS MINECRAFT: EDUCATION EDITION?

Game-based learning that students love

Drives social-emotional and STEM learning

Security, multiplayer, and assessment features

Immersive, standards-aligned, and engaging

content across subjects

Available for Windows, Mac, iPad, and

Chromebook via O365 Education and M365
“WE DO” – I DEMO AND YOU FOLLOW ALONG

I DO WE DO YOU DO
 LOGGING IN
WE DO

We’ll show you

on the screen
how to sign in
and you can
follow along.
After you sign
in, we’ll change
our skin and
adjust the
audio settings.
LET’S
BUILD!
19
BUILD A HOUSE CHALLENGE
Let’s now learn and play with our
Build a House Challenge. We’ll be
modeling this lesson today as
though you were our students –
pretend we are you, the teacher!

Experience a lesson

Teach
Release
Reflect

20
SPIRALING APPROACH: HOW MODALITY
PROGRESSES

STUDENTS HOST SMALL

GROUPS IN ONE WORLD

ALL STUDENTS IN ONE

TEACHER-HOSTED
WORLD 301
ALL STUDENTS IN
INDIVIDUAL 201
WORLDS

101
BUILDING A HOUSE CHALLENGE: RUBRIC

Watch my demo, then give it a try!

ELEMENT SCORE

Four walls & a roof 3 points

Use at least 2 different

1 point
building materials
Submit screenshot
1 point
for assessment

22
I DO – DEMO FIRST, THEN YOU GET TO BUILD!

I DO WE DO YOU DO
 BUILDING A
HOUSE
I DO
CHALLENGE
I'll be walking
through a
demonstration, so
you’ll
be watching and
we’ll
walk slowly
together through it
afterwards
in a “we do”
section.
“WE DO” TIME

I DO WE DO YOU DO
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

Go to Play, open
the Library, and
Choose the Build
a Simple House
Challenge in the
Learn to Play
tutorials. HINT –
come back here
later to practice
skills!
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

Here’s all the

items you see on
your screen and
what they mean.
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

And here’s what

they all look like
on your
keyboard. We
promise, it starts
to become
familiar quick!
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

Head controls
control which
way you are
looking as you
move your
mouse in this 3-
D world.
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

W, S, A, and D
make you move
forward, back,
side to side, and
jumping and
flying is via the
spacebar (once
or double tap).
ACQUIRING ITEMS

Right click on the Chest to open.

Left Click to select an item from

the Chest and drag into your
Inventory. Select the square you
want it placed in.
CHEST

Bring any items into the bottom

nine squares to be part of your
INVENTORY
hotbar for in-game use.

HOTBAR
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

Drag items from

inventory into
your hotbar to
be used to build
your house.
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

“e” opens
inventory –
anything you
want in the
Minecraft world!
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

There is no undo
in Minecraft.
This is on
purpose and
good for your
students! You
must mine
blocks that you
have placed
incorrectly.
 NAVIGATING
BASICS
WE DO

If students use
trackpads, they’ll
use their fingers
to right or left
click to place or
mine blocks.
BUILD A HOUSE CHALLENGE

Let’s now learn and play with our

Build a House Challenge

Experience a lesson

Teach
Release
Reflect

36
 NEXT UP: BUILDING TIME
YOU DO

ELEMENT SCORE

Four walls & a roof 3 points

Use at least 2
different building 1 point

You get to take what materials

we’ve reviewed and Submit screenshot

1 point
put it into practice. Follow for assessment

the rubric!
BUILD A HOUSE CHALLENGE

Let’s now learn and play with our

Build a House Challenge

Experience a lesson

Teach
Release
Reflect

38
“YOU DO”

I DO WE DO YOU DO
 NEXT UP: SHARING TIME
YOU DO

It’s time to collect your

builds so I can assess
them, and then we can
reflect on the build
process.
SPIRALING APPROACH: HOW ASSESSMENT
PROGRESSES

EXPORT WORLD
SCREENCASTING

CAMERA, BOOK AND

QUILL 301
SCREENSHOT 201
101
COLLECTING ASSESSMENTS VIA LMS OR
FOLDERS

In the game, you can also share the

link to the world directly to students
in your LMS of choice

You can also set up an assignment

in the LMS to collect assignments
instead

You also can use a simple shared

Drive Folder
2 MINUTES: CHECK SCORE SHEET &
SUBMIT
Turn in your masterpiece
Must have four walls and a roof (3 pts). 

Must use at least two different kinds of building materials (1 pt). 

Must turn in a screenshot at the end for assessment (1 pt).

Take a screenshot of your house Windows = (PrtScn for whole

screen, Windows + Shift + S for part of it), Mac (Shift + Command +
4 for section) | Chromebook Ctrl + Shift + Window Switch

Add the screenshot to our shared folder at: aka.ms/mee100folder

(presenter change link)
REFLECT: GIVE STUDENTS A CHANCE TO
REFLECT ON THEIR BUILDS

Let’s open the shared folder and

review some of these!

We would show one or two on

screen and we’d love to hear about
your building process and how it
felt to build in Minecraft for the
first time.
APPLY
MAKING A LESSON PLAN

45
 PLAN A LESSON
WE DO

Now let’s break that lesson down. I’ve shared with

you the exact lesson we just did! Make a copy of the
lesson plan guide: aka.ms/meelessonplanner

What changes would you make for your

class when duplicating this lesson?

You can use this for new lessons as well!

 PLAN
A LESSON
WE DO
 PLAN
A LESSON
WE DO
 PLAN
A LESSON
WE DO
“YOU DO” TIME

I DO WE DO YOU DO
 NEXT UP: ADJUSTING THE LESSON
YOU DO

You get to take what

we’ve reviewed and
put it into practice. In the
lesson planner, make any
adjustments directly in
the document as if you
were going to teach this
to your own students.
 ADJUSTING THE LESSON
YOU DO

Would anyone like to

share what changes they
made?
 301

STARTER WORLD LESSON WORLD

BUILD OR MODIFY
YOUR OWN WORLD
 EXPLORE
THE
I DO
LIBRARY
Look through
subject area, build
challenges, and
starter worlds to
start to design
your own lesson!
 301

STARTER WORLD LESSON WORLD

BUILD OR MODIFY
YOUR OWN WORLD
 EXPLORE
THE
I DO
LIBRARY
One of the
simplest ways to
begin is our Starter
Worlds – there’s
nothing extra you
need to do, just
drop students in
and ask them to
build, like Blocks of
Grass.
 THINK
PAIR
YOU DO
SHARE
Tell your neighbor
– think of one
project you
already do in
class. How could
you do the same
project but let your
students build and
show their mastery
in Minecraft in a
blank world?
WRAP UP
COMMON CHALLENGES

Minecraft: Education Game controls

Edition doesn’t open. missing on screen.

Ensure Minecraft: F1 key hides onscreen

Education Edition is features. Students
installed and updated. may accidently hit
F1 instead of the 1
or Esc key.
 JOIN THE
COMMUNITY
YOU DO

Go to
educommunity.Minecraft.net
and make a free account to get
your Community badge. Read
support articles and make
support tickets at
aka.ms/meeticket
 JOIN THE
COMMUNITY
YOU DO

You can also go to

education.minecraft.net to
search community lesson plans
and also see latest events, like
our live cohorts for eSports,
Computer Science, and Student
Ambassadors, at
aka.ms/meeevents
 SIGN UP FOR
NEWSLETTER
YOU DO

Aka.ms/mcedunewsletter
 BECOME A
MENTOR
YOU DO

Aka.ms/meementorfaqs

Do you like to coach

others, write lesson plans,
build worlds, and present
or speak about Minecraft?
Applications run quarterly
and require Minecraft
Certified Teacher badge
and a short video.
 NEXT STEPS
YOU DO

Sign up for our Block Coding Course

at aka.ms/blockcodingwithminecraft

and our Python Coding Course at

aka.ms/pythoncoding
6 PRINCIPLES OF GAME-BASED LEARNING

THE FAILURE DYNAMIC THE SITUATED MEANING

Fail early, fail often. Teach students to Learn new ideas by experiencing them. Students
take risks in a safe environment- a game. learn vocabulary in real-time, as it pertains
playing with others in the game; or learn math
as they understand construction.

THE FLEXIBILITY DYNAMIC SYSTEMS THINKING

Provide multiple paths to success. Old Learn how all pieces can fit or be fitted.
school video games had one way to win. Games help players see how their actions
Newer “sandbox” games are more open. fit into the bigger picture, not just the
individual.

CONSTRUCTION DYNAMIC BUILD EMPATHY

Build something that matters. Students Bring players together to learn a common goal.
want to create things with a purpose. By communicating and working together,
Minecraft lets them create something players build empathy through their avatars
difficult and worthwhile. by raising awareness of local or global goals.
WHICH ONE DID YOU EXPERIENCE
TODAY? TURN TO A NEIGHBOR AND
SHARE FOR 2 MINUTES

?
CHECKING IN

On a scale of 1 to 10, how ready are you to use

Minecraft: Education Edition in your classroom
or education setting?
8

1 10
Q&A
EXTRA
PRACTICE
74
 BUILD A
MOAT
CHALLENGE
YOU DO

Open the Build a

Moat Build
Challenge in the
library. Rubric:
Build a moat
around your castle
using water, take a
screenshot, share
to Drive folder.