Thanks Rebecca!  It is a great question and as you are well aware, there is a ton of research showing that active/interactive learning is more effective than passive alternatives. In our EXP we are not making this comparison directly simply because we need to pour our resources into the prototypes and camps, but it would be a good control group for sure (perhaps as a waitlist control so those kids could explore the virtual world too!).  The connection we are really excited about is how Minecraft world editing tools let kids not only ask the questions, but then build out their visions - when we piloted the idea two summers ago, they made some amazing places to explore.  thanks again!

Hi Scot, glad you enjoyed it, we enjoyed making it. Thanks also for your questions...

1.  We've got the system working in a few modes that provide slightly different experiences. For our summer camps, we have a lot of time to work with, so the kids explore freely during that time with the instructions to "find what looks different". They are told that this is Earth with no moon, but they don't know yet what it could mean. We are also considering having them plant signs in Minecraft as evidence of their observations. After collecting observations, we then talk through what could possibly explain them. For example, you may have noticed very short, wide trees in the video, and also that they were hiding behind a worn down mountain. This is due to the ferocious winds and difficulty of surviving otherwise. In the camps, we provide open play, science learning activities, and world building tools (e.g., worldedit) so they can graduate to building their own what-if worlds.   

1b. A second mode is fast, and suitable for shorter experiences in museums. Here they ride on a rail and make observations pretty quickly - we then provide explanations as they make the observations. All of this, including the first case, are derived from a master list of differences created by Dr. Comins, who has pioneered this approach to astronomy education (he has two books exploring the questions!).

1c. We capture their questions with notes and audio recordings, and interview them as well to drill down into their thinking. We have also designed surveys to capture Minecraft and STEM interest, but "liking" is known to have some pretty significant limitations in research on interest.

2.  In terms of impact, our overarching goal is to conduct research on the design of triggers of interest in STEM. We hypothesize that interactive what-if worlds can act as strong triggers, and we hope to sustain that interest through continued interaction with Minecraft. We have a server that we will make available to kids to play, and envision it as a continuing resource for them and to gauge extended interest development. As an EXP and after our first year, we haven't made this available yet as we are still designing the worlds and refining the camps, but it is our plan.  Successful triggers of interest are very powerful (Renninger & Hidi's 2016 book summarizes it perfectly, and Dr. Renninger is one of the project advisors).

Please let me know if you have more questions!  I wrote much more than I intended!

I'm curious about the role of Minecraft in your "fast" mode. It sounds like kids do not get to interact very deeply with the game world because of time constraints. What other benefits might there be to having this experience be implemented in Minecraft, even if it's minimally interactive?

For your camps, how are you recruiting and engaging students? For example, are you primarily recruiting students with a prior interest in Minecraft and using that interest to engage them with astronomy? Or are there other pathways into your experience?

Thanks, Jessica. That's right, like any museum exhibit, we do what we can with the very short amount of time we can get with the learner, and let them ride on minecarts through the various maps and say out loud what looks different. We use this as a way to engage in conversations about the science behind the differences, and with the aim to trigger interest in the content. Our plan is to make the server available to these learners, so we can use future logins to the server as an example of the trigger being effective. That's one reason why Minecraft is a good fit - connecting to servers is a normal part of playing. The second reason (perhaps more powerful) is that for so many kids, Minecraft is "their turf" and they are already comfortable with it. Unlike other games, they seem to be embracing its use in education. On the museum floors, when we recruit, we ask "Would you like to try out our Minecraft mods?" and we've had no problem getting kids to try it out.

For the camps, we are working with the Champaign-Urbana Fab Lab who run many Minecraft camps throughout the summer. Those camps get a large number of kids who have played a lot, but some who are new as well. We are interested in both cases... for the kids with tons of experience, we wonder if there is some underlying existing interest in STEM that draws them to the game (because it is essentially a simulation of the natural world), so we have surveys that seek to uncover these latent variables, and are doing interviews to see if we detect changes based on our mods. For those with less Minecraft experience, we help them with basic interaction and it usually doesn't take long before they are into it!   

Robert,

The worlds are made in Creative Mode, which grants campers unlimited Minecraft resources! It's very much true to its game genre (sandbox) in the sense that anything is possible. In my experience working on the project, I have seen a fairytale book that also served as a house, giant boats, and fictional or realistic skyscrapers. It's very akin to Legos minus the expense.

As far as parameters, Chad has already touched on this with the science learning activities and world editing tool training. We really want campers to get engaged in science concepts, so it's more about the exploration of those topics, hand-in-hand with their imaginations, and hard science facts (we won't be seeing any what-if worlds about alien invasions, for example).

Thanks Maureen, that means a lot!  It's great when we go collect data, we just ask kids "Do you want to try our Minecraft mods?" and 90% don't even hesitate, they just look to Mom/Dad and say "Can I?"  It's incredible how powerful it is to get kids through the door, and it has helped me to understand why using it in educational contexts doesn't ruin anything about the game - they just like it, no matter what they are doing in it. The question of diversity is a really important one, and we don't really have good demographics available for Minecraft players (Mojang doesn't collect it). It's a little better in terms of gender based on what I have found (than other video games), but still disappointing. For our part, we are actively reaching out to work with diverse groups - for example, for two weeks this summer we are running camps at the Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center, which has a vision of "a healthy, compassionate, progressive community where all children and families have access to services and supports that empowers successful development." Our camps are provided free of charge, and they filled up quickly! So after this summer, we'll have data from this group (30 learners) with good representation from groups who are underrepresented in STEM. So we'll hope to be able to answer your question, at least a little, very soon!

Jennifer,

Great questions! To put it simply, you can go pretty deep into some STEM topics using MC, all depending on how you use it. I've interviewed college freshmen majoring in STEM now who were MC fanatics when they were in middle school, and some of them directly credit MC as having influenced their college major choice. They were able to use MC as a means to practice coding, building circuits, and actively challenge their imaginations. From what I gather, playing the game is largely a social experience.

The campers we have been working with are in the middle school range and that's our target age group, though we have a few who are younger (the youngest ones being 8) and some older (14). The fact that they get to engage in video games is a huge draw for many campers and there's a large chunk of that from modern culture - MC has drawn its popularity from third party sources like Youtube and Twitch, and even if kids haven't played the game at home, they talk about the game as if they've known it all their life. 

When campers are brought into these different what-if scenario worlds, they are asked to make observations on the landscapes and seascapes. There is a sort of "navigation" pane where campers will be able to see the current temperature, humidity, and the like. We also prompt questions along the way. For example, for a scenario where the Sun is far away from Earth, "Why do you think there's life below ground, but not above?" This engages campers in a conversation about temperature and how it affects life. It's also a valuable opportunity to discover and correct misconceptions about science (a past camper said it's because "the sun is happy").

We are working on a collection of lessons, as well as a 24/7 server, that will be accessible to anyone who visits our site. This means that campers will be able to return to our world at anytime and interact with others who are online, and continue to explore any interests triggered during camp. Our camps are free for all its attendees, however individual access to the game at home (one-time ~$28 purchase) or at school (bulk discounts and educational versions available) would require software purchase. This investment would be well spent, as game modifications (or "mods") are all made by MC players themselves and come completely free. Mods are able to change the gameplay entirely and add additional elements, such as solar energy and nuclear reactors, that would allow campers to foster their STEM interests.

You may also be interested in checking out MinecraftEdu, an initiative created under Microsoft. There are many existing curriculums that integrate MC into school lessons - and not just in STEM, but in the language and arts as well!

Thanks so much for your interest, Jennifer, you captured some of the most important questions we are attempting to address, and I'll just add a bit to Sherry's answer.

My hypothesis on this rests on the work of Renniger and Hidi's (2016) model of interest development, and I see Minecraft as an environment that acts as a resource for kids who have a more fundamental interest in STEM (called a latent variable in the words of psychometricians). In other words, there is some fundamental interest in STEM for many kids, and consciously or not, Minecraft is an environment that allows them to interact with that content and strengthen their interest. So it is not as much a STEM vs. Minecraft interest, but rather one acting as a context for pursuit of the other. Our project, then, is just a way to magnify the very cool things we are already seeing happening in the game. This hypothesis is consistent with another observation we have made, which is that using Minecraft for educational purposes doesn't seem to be ruining it at all for learners - they are pleased to be able to pursue learning activities on their own turf.

Another thing I'll add is that there is a wide range of what is manipulable in Minecraft. In our camps, we don't assume any coding skills, so we are focused on surface features of and what is possible through existing mods. But, as an exploratory grant, we are aiming high in our future work, and want to bring in modding and extend the capabilities of the system to let kids build more elaborate versions of their own worlds, such as changing the physics and weather models (see this related Showcase Video - really amazing tools for modding). 

Lastly, we do offer the server 24/7 for kids to continue their engagement later, and our two astronomers on the team (Neil and Jorge) will be at one of our camps in Champaign-Urbana to talk about other opportunities - it will be awesome. We are recording their presentations for sharing on our website, whimc.education.illinois.edu

thanks again!!!

Fran,

That's what we're hoping for! Or at least obtain some clues as to how we can at least trigger/sustain STEM interest from in-game to real world, and vice versa.