This project happened at the end of 2021, and was part of the 5th Grade Egyptian Tomb unit – an annual, all-grade event that culminates in a presentation to the community. This year, a new learning objective was added to make the project more technologically interactive: to recreate research findings in a Minecraft EDU world. I coordinated, and faciliated this part of the project in my weekly Digital Essentials class.

For the overall unit, each small group (3-4 students) was given a different research focus relating to ancient Egypt. These included topics such as:

• Female Pharaohs
• Daily Life
• Social Hierarchy
• Mummification
• And more!

After researching these topics extensively using a library-created Libguide, students brainstormed, drafted, and created relevant aspects of the ancient Egyptian world using Minecraft EDU. A Minecraft “contract” was created with guidelines on using the worlds in an educational way, and special devices were set up to be designated as “Minecraft iPads” which were the only iPads used for the project.

The completed Minecraft worlds were historically accurate, and detailed. The culmination of the project was a 5-minute, screenshared tour that was presented to 8th graders. The small groups wrote and memorized scripts, and guided 8th graders through the worlds they had created while sharing facts they had learned about Egypt. After the project, they wrote brief reflections on the process.

This lesson was implemented during the 2021-2022 school year.