Quick Guide:
- This can be done in teams of up to 4, preferably in pairs or threes though
- One player should import the world (linked below)
- They host the world an Minecraft Edu and their teammates join
- Try and arrange for all players to enter the house at the same time so all can race to get out
- Each member of the team should be in the house before the first button is pressed (otherwise they are locked out)
- Any wrong answer leads them a long way to get back – they won’t want to do it too often!
.mc world file linked to Google Drive to download.
The great thing about making Minecraft worlds is that it just feels like I’m playing, and then I get to share my creations with incredibly eager and motivated students and it makes the fun last much longer.
This week I spent a bit longer on a world and created an escape ‘house’. Granted, I’m more of a survivalist than a creator on Minecraft, so don’t expect this to look… polished. But it is what it says, a ‘house’ that when you enter as a team and press the button, you find yourself locked in, with five different challenges based on decimals to answer.
I’ve done a few Minecraft lessons with my Year 5s, some have gone better than others, but this WAS AN OUTSTANDING SUCCESS. They were so into the challenge, working together and just having fun at the same time. Yes, there were some that got distracted at times with the world they played in, but the whole thing is immutable (can’t be changed), so they were soon back into the maths of the challenge.
I asked my Year5s to be the guinea pigs, and surprisingly I hade made very few mistakes, just one point where I had them locked in a room as I forgot a button to get out, once they got in, and also I got good feedback on ‘the wrong room’.
The Wrong Room
One issue with using Minecraft commands as questions is that there are limited options – there can’t be a free number input where they can answer anything and get a response on if they are correct or not (or at least I’m not that good at coding it yet) so basically they have a choice of 4-6 answers. To try to stop them just spamming answers until they get the right one, I set up a teleport so when an incorrect answer is given, the WHOLE team get teleported to a far away point and have to walk back.
It did work as a deterrent, but my students said it should be even further away, or more annoying to get back – which I just loved. So I’ve amended the walk to be filled with cobwebs and made it longer. It is pretty frustrating. Moral of the story, don’t get questions wrong.
The Maths
It is all based on decimal numbers, ordering, adding, multiplying and a couple of problem questions. The challenge was enough for good ability Year 5s, though I had to add in an extra question to make it last around 25-30 minutes in total.
Of course, the end treat is for them to be creative and build something – allowing them a nice reward for when they finish.
Not going to lie, I am going to be making A LOT more of these 🙂
Full walkthrough here:
Maths Beyond the Curriculum 