Maths lessons have been given an engaging and relevant twist, thanks to a specialist college’s personalised new online Minecraft world.
Staff and maths students at Shropshire further education college, Derwen College, have created ‘Derwen-craft’ – an online world that even features a replica of the college’s functional skills hub, The Bradbury.
Derwen College, based in Gobowen, is making maths more engaging, and combining numerical skills with imagination and problem-solving. Students taking Functional Skills maths lessons benefit from the ‘gamification’ of maths, solving problems on a gaming platform that they already enjoy.
Meg, who has built a virtual holiday home and rents out a speedboat
Meg and Justin
Performing Arts student Meg and Retail student Justin are among students who enjoy weekly maths sessions in the Minecraft world of ‘Derwen-craft’.
Meg has built a virtual holiday home and rents out a speedboat. She is learning money skills, map scaling, and how to work out the cost of her boat trips using contextual maths problems.
Justin has used his maths skills to design and create an impressive giant rollercoaster.
The ‘Derwen-craft’ world features maths problems created by functional skills co-ordinator Leah Bamford. Students can also devise maths problems to test each other.
Justin, who has used his maths skills to design and create a giant rollercoaster
‘All’s fair in maths and Minecraft!’
Justin enjoys maths and is also a keen gamer.
He says: “These sessions have really helped me. I have to calculate problems, but in an interesting way.”
Meg said: “I love maths. I like building things. We are learning maths but can be creative too. The only rules are ‘don’t kill villagers or destroy other people’s buildings. We’re allowed to kill polar bears and rabbits. All’s fair in maths and Minecraft!”
Functional skills co-ordinator Leah Bamford with Meg
‘It’s great fun too!’
Functional skills coordinator Leah Bamford said: “With Minecraft, we have created a world that we call ‘Derwen-craft’, where Functional Skills maths is disguised in colour, creativity and competition. This is a world where solving maths problems is not intimidating, can be personalised and brought to life to have great cognitive value and help develop social skills. And, let’s not forget, it’s great fun too!”
Curriculum manager, Jennifer Fawcett-Jones, says: “Teachers at Derwen College are always looking for ways to make learning meaningful and engaging.
“Maths skills are embedded into all our vocational pathways, whether that’s Hospitality students measuring ingredients for a recipe, Performing Arts students counting dance steps, Retail students working out what change to give customers in the charity shop, or Horticulture students measuring the growth of seedlings.
“It’s great to see students enjoying maths so much because of the creative and relevant way it’s delivered.”
The Derwen-craft online world features a replica of the college’s functional skills hub, The Bradbury
Functional skills and vocational pathways
At Derwen College, students aged 16 –25 learn work and/or independence skills to support them in adulthood. Most students learn functional skills which are embedded into their vocational pathways.
Where appropriate, some students receive dedicated additional timetabled functional skills sessions, offering extra learning in maths, English and ICT.
Learn more
Find out more about how Derwen College supports a wide range of students aged 16-25 with SEND at www.derwen.ac.uk.
