16 Minecraft Coding Educational Benefits for Kids

As a parent you might have heard of the Minecraft computer game, but do you know about Minecraft coding educational benefits? With 126 million active users Minecraft’s benefits are worth delving into. We’ve listed 16 educational things that kids learn through Minecraft.

1. Get to Learn Coding

What is a better way to getting kids interested in computers and programming than a gamified approach? The platform itself is built by Java, a powerful programming language. Kids can edit Java scripts or write their own to build “mods” which stands for modifiers. These modifiers or “mods” change the game for the better and enrich kids’ knowledge about new different things.

Click here to see our Minecraft Coding Course.

2. Experiment with Biology

Another Minecraft coding benefit is that students can learn about different types of biomes, cell organelles, and the human body all through Minecraft without expensive lab equipment. They can have a deeper understanding of biology by a suitable Minecraft lesson plan aimed at teaching this subject. For example, they can model a body organ or system.

3. Discover Physics Wonders

Gilby’s physics is a mod Kids can add to bring real-world physic laws to their projects or totally discard them. They get to observe the world they build with or without these laws. For example, when they explode a block, the particles and the blast wave are more similar to the real world when using this mod.

Another Minecraft coding educational benefit related to physics is the opportunity to observe a Rube Goldberg machine or build one.

4. Take in Ecology

Kids can explore biodiversity, extinction, ecosystems, and climate change with a world specifically designed for Minecraft Education Edition called Extinction! A Biodiversity Crisis. In this world, children learn about various species from the Ice Age to the present. 

5. Have Some Knowledge of Geology

Another Minecraft coding educational benefit is learning about raw materials, rock types, and gemstones. Better Geo is a Minecraft mod that draws kids’ attention to geology and can be used as a complementary tool for teaching children about the importance of these resources and their process of extraction to end product.

6. Learn Basic Geography

One of the Minecraft’s benefits that is unlikely to come to parents’ minds fast is learning geography. Climate control mod allows kids to experiment with different climate zones, continent, and ocean sizes, prevent biome transitions or change their frequencies to create an earth-like world of their own. 

7. Become a Chemistry Enthusiast

The immersive world of Minecraft Education Edition has a wonderful mod called Chemistry Resource Pack that teaches kids about chemical compounds and reactions outside the lab environment. For example, children learn how to make hardened glass blocks with Aluminum Oxide, Boron Trioxide, and stained glass blocks.

8. Get to Know the Basics of Architecture

This might be the most obvious Minecraft’s benefit because it is similar to a never-ending bag of digital LEGO and kids have the opportunity to create whatever they want. However, some features in Minecraft are difficult or impossible to build without the use of certain mods. For example, kids can learn about different styles of architecture (Post Modern, Greek and Roman Classical, Gothic, Baroque, etc) and get to know the famous architectural landmarks such as La Sagrada Familia, The Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, and so on. The Mighty Architect and Architecturecraft are two mods that make this happen.

9. Try out Interior Design

Kids can use Minecraft blocks to decorate whatever they’ve built. They can add furniture, illumination, textures, and colors to their buildings and develop a liking for interior design.

10. Practice Agriculture

Among all the Minecraft coding educational benefits this might be the one that makes sense more. Pam’s Harvestcraft adds 80 new crops to Minecraft and helps kids learn the name of various crops.

11. Have Basic knowledge of Carpentry

Carpenter’s Blocks is a mod that allows users to add textures to different structures. Hammer and chisel, two tools of this mod, let further customization like changing the pattern direction and shape. So, kids can learn about different wood textures and experiment with roof, fence, and wall design. 

12. Explore Painting

If you’re looking for some kind of artistic educational thing in Minecraft, then Classical Art is a simple mod that will work for you. It adds the renowned works of art to the game from Leonardo Davinci’s Mona Lisa to Van Gogh’s zonnenbloemen. Kids get the opportunity to know the names of some of the most famous paintings through this mod. 

13. Learn History

There are several mods for different aspects of history from ancient weaponry (Age of Weapons), to World Wars (Minecraft Flan’s World War). Kids learn about different weapons, the Chinese Tang dynasty, and several aspects of medieval life with a suitable lesson plan.

14. Work with Electric Circuits

Another Minecraft coding educational benefit for children is gaining knowledge about electrical engineering and generating electricity from different sources of energy. For example, Minecraft Redstone mod helps kids understand the type of circuits (parallel, series,…), how electric circuits work, how switches open/close circuits, and general information about power sources.

15. Gain Life Skills

Kids are going to need shelter, food preparation, taking care of the animals, and basically maintaining what they’ve built. These simple tasks can teach them life skills such as problem-solving, making informed decisions, and out-of-the-box thinking.

16. Achieve Career Skills

Through our online coding with Minecraft course, kids learn how to code. This is an area that is now in demand (and will be in the following years). So, putting all the Minecraft coding educational benefits aside, this point is something that you probably don’t want to overlook. Besides, through this course, kids get to do several tasks, collaborate with their tutor, and develop adaptability skills which is an added bonus.

Are there any other Minecraft coding educational benefits that you can share with us? Please leave us a comment.

Read 8 reasons why STEM education is important.

Editor: Michael Mitryakov | Writer: Negin P

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