Dundee students design city waterfront using Minecraft
5 June 2015
Dundee school students have created their plans for the future of the city's waterfront, by using Minecraft.
Primary school students have used the game for a few months to plan for the region that is currently undergoing a PS1bn renewal.
Dundee City Council and University of Dundee were the primary sponsors of the project.
The design of the plans was considered along with the support for tourism education and job creation.
In addition to the Minecraft Youth Camp involving primary 6 and 7 pupils from across the city, students from nine secondary schools have been taking part in similar Minecraft Youth Camp, funded by the university and TAYplan.
Students worked in groups with Playstation and XBox consoles. They were connected to whiteboards in classrooms and utilized them to reimagine and develop their ideas of the city’s waterfront.
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'Hugely enthusiastic'
Derek Robertson, Dundee University's school for education, stated that the game was an "huge phenomenon" that enticed children.
He stated: "We need to understand the digital world that children are in and how these can help to influence their learning.
"Games and applications such as these can be a great way to get children involved in topics like design and the environment.
"The children with whom we've been working with over the past months have been extremely enthusiastic and have created an impressive amount of work. Some of it could be a challenge for the city planners but of course this is the beauty of Minecraft that they can make anything."
Mr. Robertson was recently invited along with 49 other teachers from all over the globe to participate in an Minecraft Educators Summit in Los Angeles, to discuss how Minecraft can be best used in formal and informal learning.
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