Roma Aeterna: Latin in Minecraft

The idea

In this project, we explore ancient Rome and the culture of the Romans in a Minecraft world. In this digital world, students get to work thematically. They discover how the ancient Romans lived, gladiator games and more. After the lesson-related assignments, the students can explore the old Roman city center, the Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, the villas around the city ... freely!

The innovation

With this project we try to visualize known lesson contents (for example, how did the Romans live, what is a domus, an insula and a villa) through the game Minecraft. This game is known and loved by many students. In this way we try to bridge the gap between lesson content and the interests of the student.

Why and how?

The large Minecraft world covers the entire ancient city of Rome. Zones are defined within that city. Lesson contents are arranged in these zones. Characters to interact with, things to discover, a quiz at the end of an adventure... During the course of the lesson, the students cannot leave these zones and their possibilities in the game are limited. Once the ultimate goal has been reached, they are given the freedom and resources to get started in this world themselves. This way, after learning about the Roman domus, they can build and decorate their own domus!

Results

With this project we are developing a new teaching approach within the Latin subject. In this way we can present known and well-known lesson contents digitally, graphically and interactively to the students. This project focuses on Latin students in the first stage of secondary education.

Materials

Computer for the students and teacher, Minecraft Education Edition, BookWidget (or similar platform, optional) to design the quiz.

Contact

Questions or in need of more info? Head over to the contact page!