A Trillium Foundation Grant was announced at Gravenhurst High School on April 12 to help fund the Minecraft Gravenhurst project.
The $74,500 Seed Grant will allow students to continue to re-create Gravenhurst as it looked over 100 years ago.
Jacki McPherson, an experiential education consultant, and team leader for the Minecraft build, says, it has been a learning experience for everyone in how to make educational learning work for students since the project began in 2015.
“We’re at a point now where we feel students are able to take the the technology that is available inside the school and apply it to outside the classroom,” McPherson stated. “The students are thinking about the intricate decisions made by a builder and then apply those in the design.”
While the students are having fun playing a video game, they are learning several life skills such as team collaboration and making connections with the community. This is in addition to learning about history, math, and architecture surrounding the decisions made in building the Town of Gravenhurst.
Minecraft Gravenhurst is an initiative where students will earn volunteer hours by using the Gravenhurst archives to digitally animate the historic and current urban design of the Town of Gravenhurst using Minecraft technology. Once the students, ranging from grades 9 through 12, complete the historically accurate Minecraft version of the Town, the final product will then be printed using a 3D printer and painted.The overall goal of the project is to enrich the lives of participants and the members of the public through art, culture, and technology to help preserve and animate the cultural heritage.
