For some parents, virtual world builder Minecraft is a shocking waste of their kids’ time; for others it’s a welcome distraction during the dog days of lockdown. But is Minecraft-as-STEM the way to engage the next generation of engineers, architects and designers?
In these dog days of lockdown, there can hardly be a parent unaware of Minecraft and ruing or celebrating the day it was invented.
Of all recent childhood fads – especially gaming ones – Minecraft seems to be one of the most enduring. Club Penguin, fidget spinners, Hama Beads and Pokémon GO may have come and gone (Pokémon in all its forms is still especially hated around here); yet the ultimate virtual crystal meth of the kids, and the obsession without compare in gluing them to their screens, is Minecraft.
Of course, its stranglehold hold on the gaming consciousness of many youngsters is the fault of parents – permitting this as an essentially harmless activity, akin to virtual Lego and, as children create their virtual worlds, something that fuels their imagination and drives their creativity.
If you’ve been hating the lockdowns, then you may be celebrating it as something that keeps the little darlings occupied outside virtual school hours, when it’s tipping down outside and/ or while going to the park runs the risk of a fine from an eager plod who hasn’t read the legislation properly.
Those ruing it are those familiar with the battle to wrest the device from them to get them to go to lessons, walk round the block where allowed or even just feed them. It’s at this point we realise the strength of the addiction we’ve fostered and that they would rather live in burnt-out cars as long as they are not denied access to Minecraft.
STEM
So, what then to make of Enginuity – the engineering skills solutions not-for-profit – offering Skills Miner, a Minecraft-based Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative that encourages people of all ages to find their “inner engineer”? Users will “find out if they’ve got what it takes to transit from the virtual to the real world of engineering and manufacturing”; and the game will “reveal a myriad of vocational pathways to work in the real world”.
What Minecraft-as-STEM does is lead us to reflect upon the positives of Minecraft and how it can exert a powerful STEM influence on young people, whether in respect of engineering, construction and architecture.
First, many of those engaged with Minecraft develop important IT skills, such as hosting their own servers, and working in open source Unix, and similar, operating systems.
Second is the use of imagination in the construction context. Minecraft eschews the niceties of physics such as gravity, which allows buildings – and cities and islands – to float. In the air of Minecraft, we can create realms and metropolises beyond the ambitions of most dictators and collaborate with friends in generating, literally in the terms of the game, whole worlds.
RIBA gets involved
And this is where it gets interesting as there are those – such as Enginuity and RIBA, who is now seriously engaging with Minecraft-as-STEM. Its approach to it is as, if not a design tool, then a vehicle – the sandbox it was meant to be – for exploration of structures and ‘scapes on a virtual basis. RIBA even has its own server, which it uses to encourage (young) people to explore architecture through a medium which they already find fun. It’s a no-brainer really.
After all, if pilots can learn virtually how to land an Airbus in Madeira in a hydraulically powered shipping crate in a shed near Gatwick; then why can’t something like Minecraft be used to realise the full creative potential of budding engineers and architects? Better still, these future designers will have been working with the platform since the age of seven; unlike those entering flight simulators as graduates.
While there have been claims to have built real-life Minecraft structures, they are firmly rooted in the realms of Lego and don’t generally display the wit nor scale that the virtual world allows. Now we’re simply seeing renditions of imaginary or existing buildings – BlockWorks’s Villa Rotunda is a famous example – rather than working visuals expressing buildings-to-be.
However, it remains that if a previous generation of engineers and building designers was brought up on Meccano and Lego; then it is inevitable that a coming one – if not the next – will have gained its inspiration through Minecraft.
Which means – lockdown or otherwise – patents can park their guilt about too much screen time and leave their charmers stuck to the computer in the certain knowledge they’re not dodging their responsibilities but nurturing the designers of the future.
Skills Miner, which is free to access, can be found here.
Ends.