INSIGHT

Dairy Farmers of Ontario has participated in the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair yearly with the primary objective of engaging and educating school field trip students from ages 3-18. Unfortunately, this year’s physical event has been cancelled due to Covid-19. As well the Ministry of Education and the government has stated a voluntary return back to school, which causes an inconsistent approach to how educators teach their students, as they juggle both in person and online classroom environments.

OBJECTIVE

DFO’s core target audience of school field trip groups would not have a chance to experience fairs and events as they will have limited learning experience. DFO has the opportunity to bring field trip content and learning materials to students with an engaging digital experience that can be accessed anytime and anywhere.

IDEA

Minecraft Education Edition is able to provide a free and accessible platform that can resonate with DFO’s target audience and is what they are familiar with.

Utilizing Minecraft Education to create an interactive learning experience that allows teachers to lead students through a virtual dairy farm, as students learn to collaborate to solve challenges creatively, and explore to discover new information. With a set guided learning materials, teachers are equipped to lead their students along the experience as well as exploring and interacting within the experience on their own.

MINECRAFT EDUCATION EDITION

Minecraft Education Edition is a safe platform for teachers to use in a classroom as it can only be logged on using a verified school email address.

The Minecraft map is a replica of an Ontario dairy farm as it challenges students to explore and collaborate to complete tasks relating to the 3 core learning pillars: Local (gr 1), Nutrition (gr 4), Versatility (gr 5). Lessons will help students learn practical food knowledge through real-world scenarios.

Students can explore the daily lives of milk cows, explore the farm, interact with farm characters and discover the process of how milk goes from a cow to food by completing creative challenges. The platform allows students to learn through clear and guided objectives, and document their work to share with the class. Teachers can download the map and lesson plans at www.dairycraft.ca or Minecraft Education website to be used in classrooms.

In addition to the Education Edition, the Dairycraft map can also be accessed via Marketplace.

MY ROLE

As the Platform Lead and Minecraft enthusiast, I pitched the idea to Dairy Farmers of Ontario as well as working closely with our Minecraft official partner to create the game map. From doing dairy farm research, to understanding client needs: I helped design the map, game mechanics, assets, and QA to ensure it’s true to vision, and align to the core objective.