Exploring Canada's History with Minecraft Education Edition

I’ve been working with teachers & students at different schools in Park West School Division to explore Canada’s history with Minecraft EDU projects designed by The Cobblestone Collective.

We have really enjoyed this creative way of thinking about Canada’s past, learning about history and sharing what we know about our history!

The Canada's History Crate from Cobblestone Collective (available as a free download here) includes suggested activities and video lessons guided by 2 teachers. Our learning activities included:

• Building a settlement in Minecraft
• Building the Canadian Pacific Railway
• Learning about Viola Desmond and her work to promote equity, inclusion and human rights
• Adding an equitable and accessible theatre to our settlements in honour of Viola Desmond
• Creating pixelated portraits to honour important Canadians from our past
• Learning about Truth & Reconciliation in Canada
• constructing a monument to honour the ongoing work of Truth & Reconciliation
• Researching modern changemakers in Canada
• Creating a non-player character to represent a modern changemaker that has made a difference in our country
• Considering what skills and talents we have that could be used to impact Canada and make a difference
• making a final improvement to our settlements that shows what we want to change in our local or global community

Here are some pieces of student work that showcase some elements of this project. All student work is shared with permission.

Take a tour of one group's project here: 

These screenshots show highlights of the settlement:

These portraits were created by the HCI Grade 6 class. Each team built a portrait and a sign to share information about the significant person they chose.

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