Minecraft landscape

Teaching with videogames: landscape geography in Minecraft

In this lesson students will use Minecraft to design landscapes and landforms. Students will choose a landscape, study its features and then create the landscape demonstrating these features using Minecraft!

Year levels: 7 & 8

Subject areas: Geography / humanities

Suggested duration: 1-2 lessons

Technology required:

  • individual devices (or adapt to work in small groups) with pre-installed Education edition of Minecraft

Download the full lesson plan

The lesson plan includes links to the Victorian Curriculum, indications of lesson timing, and ideas for differentiation and assessment.

Minecraft desert
Minecraft marsh
Minecraft mountains
Minecraft snow

In this lesson, students will

1.Reflect on their previous learning about landscapes and landforms.
2.Demonstrate their knowledge by drafting and creating a Minecraft landscape featuring four different landforms.
3.Write about the links between their created landscape and where these landforms occur in the real world.

By the end of this lesson, students should

know
the names and features of different landscapes
the features of different landforms
real life examples of landscapes and landforms
be able to
identify and name features of landscapes and landforms
use Minecraft to build landscapes
reflect on and present findings
improve
knowledge and understanding of geographical forms
use of geographical terminology

Authorial credit

You are free to copy, communicate and adapt this lesson plan which was created by Dean Ashton, Marlee Zirkler Emma McManus and ACMI and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.