[MUSIC]
JIM CULBERT: Me and one of my colleagues
were at lunch and we're standing in line and
we hear this parent behind us and she says,
"You would not believe my son and what he's doing.
He is at home and he is coding.
He went to some, I don't know, field trip or something,
but he came back and he is coding.
He's going to be a genius and I'm
trying to figure out what school I'm going
to put him in because he now loves to code."
NADINE EBRIT: Are you ready? All right.
JIM CULBERT: Hearing that just brightens your day.
We started putting together the Minecraft lab.
We're thinking that we could bring in
two classes at a time from an elementary school,
set it up as a one day field trip and then
we would bring both the students and
the teachers into this wonderful lab,
and then let them leave out of here with
the knowledge of how to code using Minecraft.
NADINE EBRIT: Raise your hand if you've ever tried to code before.
Be honest.
It's okay if you've never touched it before.
When students initially come into the lab,
we work with them on free building.
During that stage, we work on
how to navigate, how to move forward,
backwards, left, right, how to
job search through your inventory.
Afterwards, they go into
the actual lesson and then
we do build challenges with them
at the very end to make sure that
their field trips end off at extreme high.
There's different types of lessons that we do.
It really depends on which ones the teachers choose.
Let's say they teach science or they teach math.
They may select the lesson that
aligns to whatever they're teaching at the time.
We also add in assessments as well.
Students will take assessments before and after so that
we can see our students really
learning within this gaming environment,
or are they just playing around.
But what we're seeing is that students are learning.
Yes. Good job.
Teachers can also use that data
to bring back to their principals and be like,
hey, like our kids were actually
learning a lot that day.
SANAA MCBRIDE: When they went on a field trip,
they were able to experience
the full gamut of Minecraft.
When they came back, that's all they talked about.
When are we going back?
Now the are teachers like,
when can I take my class?
HOLLY LANHAM: We have a much larger number of teachers asking,
tell me more.
One of our visions for
this next lab that we plan to build
is not only to have
an opportunity for teachers to
bring students on field trips,
but we want to provide
more professional development to
teachers hands on experience.
SANAA MCBRIDE: All of our students and a
Biscayne Elementary Leadership Academy
are 100 percent free and reduced lunch.
The Minecraft lab gives the opportunity for students to
have access to those needs
that they wouldn't necessarily have at home.
ALLISON MCGRATH: Maybe they don't have a science lab
and they can't do any experiments,
but they can do experiments
in Minecraft Education Edition.
Maybe they'll never be exposed to coding,
but we can expose them to coding here,
and they might be willing to take up
a computer science course.
It makes learning accessible for all students,
regardless of their abilities.
We've had students come in with learning disabilities,
and we've also had students that are gifted come in.
But once they're in this world,
everybody's on the same level and they get to
guide their own learning and they're having fun.
SANAA MCBRIDE: There's also engaging my girls.
Girls tend to shy away from the math and the sciences.
JIM CULBERT: Right now in Jacksonville,
we have about 6,000 unfilled IT jobs.
As we build more and more tech
and more and more tech comes here to Jacksonville,
we need more people that are interested
in technology and going into that technology field.
This lab really demonstrates to
those underprivileged students that come here that,
wow, I can code.
This is something that is
possible for me to do in the future.
HOLLY LANHAM: Finding those educators that know
the curriculum and that have a passion for students.
With that and Minecraft,
you're going to provide an experience for
students no matter what scale it is.
You don't have to go grand. Just start.