Goldsmith Teaches With A Twist
Sheridan Parker
Staff Writer
If someone saw a class of students in pod 2000 playing Minecraft, people might think this is unusual. Of course, Trent Goldsmith’s methods of teaching aren’t necessarily conventional. Goldsmith’s Economics class has been using Minecraft to teach the students about today’s economics.
Minecraft, for those that don’t know, is a Swedish computer game. The purpose of the game is to create a world and thrive within it by gathering resources and constructing buildings.
Goldsmith recycled this ingenious idea and applied it to his specific course.
“I actually found it on a site called minecraft.edu and I went to NIDA which is a technology thing that a couple of other people went to,” Goldsmith said. “I sat in on a Minecraft [program] that these dudes out in Kearney just let the kids go with. For instance, they did a model of a prisoner camp for Civil War and I thought that we could probably do a lot of econ stuff with that.”
The students have learned many things from this “experiment”, including real life skills such as how to work with others in order to accomplish tasks.
“It shows how different city states have to work together to coexist. It applies all the concepts we learn in class to a real life situation,” senior Christian Dauel said.
The program is helping the students to understand the components of a culture.
“This has helped me learn what actually goes into building a society and how much teamwork is influenced in it,” junior Sydney Sharp said.
However, some of the students had their reservations of how productive to learning the game would be.
“I was questionable at first, whether or not we could actually relate it to society. It really shows how economics are in everything we do,” senior Tyson Krehnke said. “Simple things like food, minerals -- things you can find in Minecraft, actually pertain to economics.”
The scholars are expected to be held accountable for their work referenced in Minecraft.
“Everything we cover they have to answer for. For instance, we talked about how economics helps make choices, cost vs. benefits, scarcity and all those types of things,” Goldsmith said.
Minecraft helps students apply what they have learned in the class to real life scenarios.
“I’ve learned the different principles of economies and different things we’ve learned in class. Its helped me comprehend it better,” junior Chase Diekmann said. “It gives us more of an overview of what we did in class throughout the week before we come out and play this [Minecraft].”
The students are able to use Minecraft as another source besides their textbook to learn the basics of economy.
“It has taught me that there are a lot of jobs that go into making an economy. There is definitely a lot of high demand [for supplies],” senior Grant McGill said. “It’s more of work and not just a textbook.”
The technology had some difficulty processing the game in the beginning.
“The administration was very supportive of the project, the hardest part was getting the technology to be able to handle,” Goldsmith said.
Look forward to seeing how the game is helping the students and more of Trent Goldsmith’s creative teaching techniques.
