Video Games Give Students Tools to Dream Up Their Own Theme Parks

Most kids love theme parks, but few get the chance to build the theme parks of their dreams for school. Thanks to Project Based Learning, Sarah Wilson’s students are crafting their own theme parks to learn more about engineering.

“We will be using forces and motion to create roller coasters, they will use cardstock to create and model and then apply it to Minecraft Education to create a theme park,” Wilson said. “This incorporates skills in science, technology, engineering and math.”

Minecraft Education is the learning-based wing of one of the most popular building video games in the world. It allows students to learn physics, engineering and other STEM concepts in an accessible and fun way. Wilson said that thread of connection between popular gaming and education is critical for students to become more engaged in learning STEM material.

“Students are able to experiment, design, analyze and problem solve to connect content areas with their knowledge of a topic,” Wilson said. “They are less likely to lose interest in the subject.”

Project Based Learning (PBL) is more than a fad in education. For decades, educators understood that giving students hands-on ways to apply curriculum outside of the classroom helps them understand concepts better.

These larger-scale projects are being implemented throughout LaRue County Schools as part of the goals set forth by the LaRue County Learner Profile. The aim is that by giving students authentic experiences with their subjects, they can prepare themselves for the real world.

At first, Wilson was slightly hesitant to implement Project Based Learning.

“When I first went to training, I thought PBL was something you did all of the time in the classroom and I was overwhelmed,” Wilson said. “As we went through training we found out you usually only do one or two projects a year. This made it much more manageable.”

Students get more than STEM knowledge through Wilson’s theme park building project. They’ll also get skills that most other iconic theme parks around the country use to succeed.

“By working on a PBL project students are encouraged to build leadership skills,” Wilson said. “They are building relationships and working with a team. They learn to communicate with others. This is a skill they can take out into the world to apply to the workforce, vocational school or the university.”