Development of intellectual and scientific abilities through game-programming in Minecraft

Abstract

In recent years, the technological revolution has changed the way we see reality and interact with it. Inevitably, education and didactic planning have also had to deal with new technologies. Indeed, the presence of digital tools has radically changed people's lives since childhood. Many educational realities have exploited this digital transformation to speed up and specialize learning, customizing study plans and type of software according to age groups. The activity of the Digital Education Lab is part of this context. It is a digital education school which uses the game software Minecraft Education Edition to teach its students the fundamental principles of computer science, geometry and mathematics. This article discusses learning key science concepts through game learning. The analysis carried out allows to see that students are facilitated in learning complex scientific concepts when these are shown through the game and can therefore be "experienced". The learning of 186 students aged between 8 and 10, who are generally at the first approaches to the digital world, has been evaluated. To evaluate the acquisition of knowledge through these innovative methods, at the end of the didactic course we have administered anonymous tests through the Google classroom platform. The results show that learning through a game-software facilitates the learning of basic scientific information as well as fostering the capacity for interconnection and transversality.

Keywords: Digital education; Game-base learning; Microsoft MakeCode; Minecraft education edition; Programming; Technological learning.

Fig. 1

Summary of the technical and digital skills expected at the end of the course

Fig. 2

Summary of the growth and personal development expected at the end of the course

Fig. 3

Summary of the security and computer awareness expected at the end of the course

Fig. 4

Example of didactic implementation of the item “Complexity as union of fundamental steps”, a) shows the single point (block), while b) shows the line as sequences of points (blocks)

Fig. 5

Example of didactic implementation of the item “Trial and Error” a) shows the right line, while b) shows the line shows the line with the center block in the wrong position

Fig. 6

Example of didactic implementation of the item “Step Visualization”, Shows the Agent executing the given commands through the code

Fig. 7

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the first question of the sector INF / 0 “What are the commands to be able to play Minecraft on the PC”

Fig. 8

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the second question of the sector INF / 0 “do you think it is useful to give names to the commands so that they are easier to understand?”

Fig. 9

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the third question of the sector INF / 0 “What is a cycle in programming language?”

Fig. 10

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the 4th of the sector INF/0 “What is MakeCode?”

Fig. 11

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the first question of the sector GEO / 1 “What is a point in Minecraft?”

Fig. 12

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the first question of the sector GEO/2: “How is it possible to build a line in Minecraft?

Fig. 13

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the first question of the sector GEO/3: “What is the difference between the plane and the perimeter in Minecraft?”

Fig. 14

Sector code MAT/1 for the verification of mathematical reasoning skills

Fig. 15

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the question of sector MAT/1: “How many steps forward does the Agent take?”

Fig. 16

Proposed code for sector INF / 1 related to the question: “What code builds a rectangle?”

Fig. 17

Score as a percentage of possible answers to the question of sector INF/1: “What code builds a rectangle?”

Fig. 18

Proposed code for sector INF/2 related to the question: “What code builds a house?”

Fig. 19

Summary histogram of the scores obtained by students of the basic course in the tests administered