Molcraft: Exploring molecules in Minecraft

Project Description

Molcraft, will use the popular computer game Minecraft as a tool for visualising and exploring chemical and protein structures. The project will develop a 'world' populated with key structures, functional groups and molecules of interest. The world will also contain lessons, quizzes and in game supporting information. Further (out-of-game) supporting material will allow teachers (and students) to construct their own Molcraft worlds, introduce their own quizzes and in-game assignments. The Molcraft world will be made freely available to download and install within Minecraft. It will also be provided as a server allowing schools and other visitors to log into the world without having to download any additional material. The computer game, Minecraft, is frequently used as an educational aid. Minecraft EDU has been designed with the specific aim to support the use of the game in education. For example, every secondary school in Ireland now has licenses to run this education version of Minecraft. Teachers and pupils alike have made use of its flexibility to explore historical buildings, drill down through the strata of the UK or collaborate on building projects within virtual teaching environments. A key concept in chemistry is 3d configurations of molecules and the structures of functional groups. These are fundamental points in Alevel curricula. However they can easily be approached much earlier in science education (even at primary school) with the aid of models and visualisation software. Existing resources are not designed with school children in mind, so it it difficult for teachers to access appropriate software, and molecular modelling kits are too expensive for many schools to purchase in any number. Through the use of the Molcraft we will introduce a free, flexible, facility for anyone versed in the use of Minecraft to explore chemical structures. This will be supported with online and in-game resources. These resources will be expanded over time, with the help of the Minecraft community. A server will host the Molcraft world, allowing anyone to access it. Teachers will be allowed to register as editors of the world and so contribute their own material to it. In this way we will establish a growing resource of chemistry related material embedded within a widely accessed game.