Discovering the elements of the periodic table in Minecraft

Stéphanie Rioux of the RÉCIT National Service, Mathematics, Science and Technology (RÉCIT MST) offers a look at the Minecraft Education Chemistry Toolkit, which can be leveraged by high school science teachers.

The Minecraft Education Chemistry Kit contains four components: the element builder, compound creator, lab table, and matter reducer. It also provides access to the elements of the periodic table.

"For the teacher who wants to make understanding the elements of the periodic table more concrete, this chemistry kit offers a different and fun way to do so. Students don't expect this kind of functionality in Minecraft," said Stéphanie Rioux, during a workshop at the Association pour l'enseignement de la science et de la technologie au Québec (AESTQ) conference on October 21. (In fact, when the author told her teenage daughter, who is currently taking a chemistry class, about the kit, she said, "Cool!)

Virtual laboratory in a downloadable world

When she discovered this opportunity to use Minecraft to do chemistry, Stephanie set out to translate the elements of the chemistry kit and create a world that features workshops to complete. She demonstrated this at the AESTQ conference. The world can be downloaded from its presentation (slide 7). "It's brand new, I've never presented it before. I can't wait to see teachers experiment with it," Stephanie said after her demonstration.

In the world, students can:

Build elements

Create compounds

Using the laboratory table

Reduce materials (undo objects that exist in Minecraft to see what elements they are made of)

The laboratory journalThis is a new feature in Minecraft, with explanations for each of the components. It is only in English for the moment, but can be translated. It is the same for the list of available elements.

Do you teach chemistry and test this kit with your students? Let us know!

The RÉCIT MST team is available every Wednesday morning from 9-11:30 a.m. to answer your questions. Simply join at the Zoom link: recitmst.qc.ca/ecv-zoom

The presentation made at the AESTQ conference

Campus RÉCIT's self-training on Minecraft Education