The new Chemistry Update for Minecraft: Education Edition offers learners a fun way to explore chemistry within the immersive world of Minecraft. Make pigs fly with helium balloons, create underwater TNT or see what elements make up a grass block. If you can craft a pickaxe in Minecraft, you can learn chemistry.
Dr. Kate Biberdorf, Ph.D., public outreach director and lecturer at University of Texas, thinks adding chemistry to Minecraft could be a game-changer for introducing students to the subject. “Even the most basic concepts can be hard to learn without the freedom to experiment,” she said. “The best way to learn is to try and fail, and try again – and that’s what games like Minecraft do best!”
New features include:
- The Element Constructor allows users to create elements based on their atomic structure with sliders to choose the number of protons, neutrons and electrons.
- With the Compound Creator, users add elements to the grid and the resulting compound will appear to use in Minecraft.
- The Lab Table allows users to create Minecraft items by combining elements and compounds in a grid. For example, adding water and sodium hypochlorite makes bleach, which a player can use to turn wool white.
- The Material Reducer reduces a block to its component elements, providing a useful way to explore the elements that make up our environment.
The Chemistry Update is available as an in-game resource pack for all users of Minecraft: Education Edition, along with ten lesson plans, the Minecraft ‘World of Chemistry’ and teacher’s lab journal. For more resources to learn and teach chemistry in Minecraft, visit http://education.minecraft.net/chemistry.
