CONTENT:

Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world and is played by gamers of all ages. The game’s objective is to build and craft by finding and extracting raw materials, such as rocks, metals and minerals. The geology in the game, which is a large part of the experience, is however very simplified. The Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU) has developed a modification (“mod”) BetterGeo, by introducing more realistic geology in the Minecraft game. The aim of mod is to increase the understanding of geology and its importance for society. BetterGeo mod comes with a package of several rock types, minerals, and metals, and delivers more realistic ways to extract the metals from the minerals and rocks. It also shows environmental impacts, weathering of certain rocks, new soil types and alloying.

BetterGeoEdu is an education project built using the tools in BetterGeo, with aim of creating, testing and distributing educational material about geology and raw materials. The goals of the BetterGeoEdu project are:

1. to create new educational material for primary schools based on mod BetterGeo,
2. to hold four test lectures in four different countries,
3. to hold a one-day workshop for primary school teachers.

The role of the Geological Survey of Slovenia (GeoZS) in the project is the creation of new teaching and learning materials and the dissemination of results at public events and events intended for teachers.

Links:

• BetterGeo webpage in Slovene
• Youtube: BetterGeo - a mod for Minecraft
• Youtube: BetterGeo - realistic geology in Minecraft
• BetterGeo Wikia