The Science of Minecraft: An International Museum Day Build Challenge – May Monthly Museum Minecraft - Virtual

Duration

1 hour

Audience

Educators, Schools

Age

8-14

Grades

4-8

Subjects

Language, Science, Science & Technology, The Arts

A Minecraft screenshot of a large amethyst and calcite geode. Small Minecraft characters walk around the geode, and a large labelled poster of a real geode is on the wall.

Duration

1 hour

Audience

Educators, Schools

Age

8-14

Grades

4-8

Subjects

Language, Science, Science & Technology, The Arts

Tour ROM’s first Minecraft world, Rocks and Minerals, with Museum Educators and special guest scientists. Compare the science of Minecraft to real Earth Science and present your findings in your own Minecraft museum.

Book now

So how does Minecraft measure up to the real world of Rocks and Minerals?

To celebrate the upcoming International Museum Day (May 18), we’re diving into ROM’s first official Minecraft world, Museum Minecraft: Rocks and Minerals, to find the answer to this pressing question so that we can present the answers in a very special build challenge.

Our special guest this month is Senior Curator and Teck Endowed Chair of Mineralogy, Dr. Kim Tait, who knows everything there is to know about the rocks at ROM.

Together, we’ll explore the variety and diversity of rocks in Minecraft, use some chemistry tricks to break them down to their basic elements, and see just how well Minecraft measures up to real rock specimens that reside at ROM. Then, we’ll share some coding and building tips to help students build their own museums to show off just how much they know about rocks and minerals.

Can’t attend live? No problem! In this special YouTube Live Format, you’ll be able to pause and play the lesson to go at the pace that’s right for your students. If you can't attend live, you can still follow along with the recording through the links you’ll receive when you book.

Delivery Language	This lesson is offered in English only.
Activities	Learn about different types of rocks and minerals. Compare the Minecraft science with real science. Apply learning by building a Minecraft museum. Use code to facilitate and speed up building.
Format	Virtual Lesson
Duration	1 hour
Pricing	Free
Minimum Group	n/a
Maximum Group	Unlimited

May 13, 2026 – 9:30 AM
After the live lesson airs, classes may register to view the recording.

Guest Presenter

Dr. Kim Tait

Kimberly Tait is a Curator of Mineralogy and oversees mineralogical, gemmological and meteoritic research at ROM. She is also a cross-appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Toronto.

Kim's research has led to publications on new mineral structures and the nomenclature of mineral groups. She has worked on the alluaudite-group minerals, a group of phosphate and arsenate minerals that were poorly characterized. She is also interested in non-ambient mineralogy, such as high-pressure and low- or high-temperature phases, using both neutron and X-ray diffraction and scattering techniques. A majority of her research for her Ph.D was performed at the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center (LANSCE), which is a major experimental science facility located in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Several of her experiments at LANSCE were on materials that either form or change properties at extreme conditions, such as gas hydrates and some sulfate minerals that are expected to form on the surface of Mars. She also performs experiments at the Argonne National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source (APS) in Illinois. Typically, the experiments at the APS are at high-pressure (10-80 GPa) and use a diamond anvil cell to simulate how the crystal-structure (atomic make-up of a mineral) will behave under such conditions. This kind of research will help us better understand the dynamics and structure of the Earth and other planetary interiors.

About Kim

Learning Goals

Identify characteristics of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.

Compare and contrast the behaviour of Earth Science elements in Minecraft to real-world situations.

Combine coding and engineering design thinking to create a museum to display a narrative about rocks and minerals.

While the virtual lesson is only offered in English for now, you can follow this tutorial to translate the game language into French.

Dialogue in this Minecraft World will appear in English if the game settings are switched to French (Canada).

Preparation:

Students should be comfortable with the basics of Minecraft, including movement and the breaking and placing of blocks. Students should also be familiar with using the camera and book & quill to document learning.

New to Minecraft?

We recommend that students are familiar with the basic Minecraft controls taught in the How to Play tutorials in the Minecraft Lesson Library, particularly:

How to Play: Movement (Keyboard and Mouse / Touchscreen)
How to Play: Break and Place (Keyboard and Mouse / Touchscreen)

You can also check out our New to Minecraft section on our Minecraft Program Support site.

Requirements

Class set of devices with Minecraft Education installed.

Minecraft Licenses are not provided by ROM. They must be provided by your school or board, or through the Camps and Clubs program for homeschool or other educators.