Minecraft Brain Training

Recently I've been pondering on all the pro's of gaming. Last Monday I posted about how Minecraft is educational. Check it out here. This lead me to realise that Minecraft is also great for adults as well to exercise our brain. Using our brain to conquer puzzles, test our memory, solve problems and be creative keeps our minds strong in these areas.

You could go ahead and do brain training exercises... *yawn* Personally I find this a chore... Or you could simply play Minecraft. Here's how Minecraft keeps our brain strong!

1. Minecraft tests our memory 

There are so many recipes to remember to build tools and supplies in Minecraft, while you can go ahead and look them all up, that gets overly tedious, so it's much easier to just remember the ones you need to make often such as your tools which break over time and food.

 

2. Minecraft helps you with your directional sense

Personally, I need help with this, direction is not my fortè. Minecraft requires you to go exploring, having a strong sense of direction is a huge plus because not only do you need to find your way back out of a cave or back home but you may also need to do it in the dark. This also once again, tests our memory.

 

3. Minecraft requires you to solve problems and gives you multiple ways to do this

For example you have a hunger bar and need to make sure that it doesn't drop all the way down or your character will die. You can kill wild animals for food but you must also cook the meat, you can grow wheat to make bread and even bake a cake. Just like crafting tools and items, some food requires a few items to create.

You also must survive the monsters which appear at night, your best bet is to create shelter and perhaps build a bed to sleep through the night. You also need to equip yourself with weapons such as swords and/or a bow and arrows.

The monsters become harder as you gain experience and level up. To better your chances of staying alive you can create armor and better both your weapons and armor with stronger materials and enchants.

 




While you can simply survive and build your dream home and even a whole city, you can also take on the adventure of slaying the Ender Dragon; the end game boss. This brings up a whole new list of problems to solve which I'll leave for you to discover.

4. Minecraft is a creative game

You start in the vast wilderness, with different types of landscapes; such as desert, jungle, forest and snow plains. It's entirely up to you what you will do. You could build your dream home, build a city or pretty landscapes, build gardens, build a giant statue of your favourite character, build a roller coaster, build a train system, have an animal farm, explore the world or strive to slay the Ender Dragon; the lists of what you can do are endless. 

Being creative while having to also think logically connects and strengthens both sides of your brain. It's just as important to exercise the creative and subjective side of your brain as it is to exercise your logical and objective side. While our society tends to favour logic and rational thinking, our culture is beginning to realise our right side allows us to be imaginative, create and problem solve through thinking outside the box and transcending ideas altogether.

5. Minecraft is a puzzle game

 Minecraft requires problem solving skills such as logic and remembering patterns. You may remember SighFye's post about him making a binary clock in Minecraft, take a look here. You can also find and solve puzzles that people have created, such as The Puzzles of Hydro Map.

And if you're up for more of a challenge, you could create your own puzzle. 

6. Minecraft helps develop your math skills

Along with remembering patterns to create items, you also need to use math when you want to create multiple items at once in recipes or when you're building. You'll be using math from addition and subtraction to algebra.

7. You can test your current skills in programming or learn how to code

You can build customized features into Minecraft by coding modifications into the game. Minecraft provides a fun platform to learn how to program, even 8 year old's are learning how to code with Minecraft.

The survival aspect along with the freedom to be creative and do what you want makes Minecraft the perfect brain training game!

Have fun strengthening your head muscle but don't forget to exercise your other muscles too ;)

Bellistik

Minecraft is Educational

Hiya, Bellistik here and it's Minecraft Monday!

I home school my kids and I like the approach of unschooling or natural schooling. I love it when I can find new ways to teach the kids math, English, science, society and environment etc. that is so fun and immersing they don't even realise they're learning.

One great example is cooking; they learn maths such as fractions, we can get into science such as water evaporating and foods changing when cooked, we talk about nutrition and we can try different foods from other cultures.

As a gamer and a mum I welcome the kids to play games twice a week but I especially like Minecraft (and so do they!). Minecraft is open world and creative so instead of running pre-made levels they're free to choose what they do. Here's some great ways they learn through Minecraft:

1. Creativity. They're free to be creative, making and doing what they please.
   
   
2.  Hierarchy of needs. Kids are looked after and their needs are pretty much met for them but while playing a survival game like Minecraft they have to learn to put their basic needs first before going off and playing. For this they need to make tools to find and make food and shelter. As well as weapons and armor to protect them from monsters.
   
   
3. Problem Solving. As you enter Minecraft you are stood with nothing on a vast landscape. You must find resources to survive, you need food, shelter and safety; these need to be met continuously through out your game play, while balancing your survival you can be creative and build whatever you like and problem solve as you go. 
    
4. Math. To be able to build weapons, armor and tools etc. the kids need to use recipes:
   
   
   
   
   
   As well as testing their memory to remember the patterns needed to re-build tools when they break, they also need some math skills. Some recipes call for multiple items to create one:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Some items also create multiple items:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Minecraft provides kids with opportunities to use addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. While designing and building in Minecraft it's also handy to have an idea of length, width and depth.
   
   
5. English. To play Minecraft it's important to be able to read and sometimes type, especially when playing with others. 
   
   
   
   
   
   These are just a few subjects kids learn while immersed in their Minecraft world. As they get older they can also jump into the code and change how the game plays.
   
   Kids are like sponges and learn fast and we all learn best when we're enjoying it! 
   
   
   Happy crafting!
   
   
   Bellistik