Researchers Crafting Hands-On Science Lessons in Minecraft

04.03.2025

The Margaret McDermott Mall on the UT Dallas campus as seen in Polycraft World, a Minecraft modification created by a team of UTD faculty and students.

In “A Minecraft Movie,” which opens in theaters April 4, four misfits transported to the video game’s cubic world must harvest materials to craft their way back home and protect themselves from threats such as zombies and hostile creatures called piglins.

Meanwhile, at The University of Texas at Dallas, a team of researchers has embarked on its own Minecraft mission: to build lessons within the popular game to teach students about semiconductors, batteries, polymers and even help premedical students prepare for the MCAT.

“We deliver complex content fully within Minecraft in an approachable, simple way,” said Dr. Walter Voit BS’05, MS’06, associate professor of materials science and engineering and of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Engineering Innovation.

Voit, who leads the project, is a longtime Minecraft player who said he is eager to see the new movie starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa. He and fellow researchers recently launched a startup company, Pedegree Studios Inc., which has licensed UT Dallas technology to develop educational games embedded in Minecraft. The company’s efforts include Overqualified! learning modules, which feature a digital replica of the UTD campus that the team previewed at South by Southwest in March.

Dr. Walter Voit BS’05, MS’06 (center), associate professor of materials science and engineering and of mechanical engineering at UT Dallas, discusses how Minecraft can be used as a training ground for students at an event at the Texas Capitol.

Minecraft is a sandbox game that gives players freedom to explore, build and experiment without strict constraints. The platform makes it possible for developers to create a replica of a battery prototyping lab in the game, for example.

“It’s a space where you can learn real-life lessons in a realistic environment in a digital abstraction of often restricted spaces,” said Dr. Eric Kildebeck BS’05, research professor at UTD and a senior vice president of education at Pedegree Studios. As undergraduate classmates, Kildebeck and Voit were members of the inaugural cohort of Eugene McDermott Scholars at UT Dallas.

The abstract, blocky Minecraft environment also makes it possible to quickly build complex lab facilities in the game that do not need to be exact replicas of their real-world counterparts to function. A team led by Dr. Robert Steininger, a long-time research scientist in the Center for Engineering Innovation and aptly titled puzzlemaster at Pedegree Studios, carefully studies manuals, blueprints and physical layouts to re-create UTD labs and equipment and model human endeavors, like learning to make a computer chip from scratch, through Minecraft.

“We’ll find a 3D model of a scanning electron microscope, and then we’ll re-create it in the game,” said Steininger, an alumnus of the Eugene McDermott Graduate Fellows Program.

Pedegree Studios builds on the 2014 release of Polycraft World, a Minecraft modification created by a team of UTD faculty and students that incorporates into the game many aspects of polymer science and engineering, from petrochemical harvesting and refining to the creation of specialty items made from many different plastics, rubbers, ceramics and alloys. Researchers also received a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant in 2020 to use Polycraft World to teach artificial intelligence systems to respond to dynamic and unpredictable environments.

“In the beginning, the thought was: We want to provide some bonus experiences for students to poke into Minecraft and learn about polymers. We started by putting seven recyclable polymers in the game,” Voit said.

Now, researchers envision engaging science and engineering lessons matched to state and national accreditation standards that students at UTD and beyond can access on a gaming console, computer or phone.

“We’re here to help faculty package their course content dynamically to take advantage of the ways that students consume content today,” Kildebeck said. “We can teach students wherever they are, whenever they’re awake, using whatever device they’re on.”

–Kim Horner