ROM Minecraft

Minecraft: Education Edition is a game-based learning platform that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive digital environment.

ROM Minecraft programs are designed to leverage the power of this amazing learning tool to create immersive, engaging, and memorable learning experiences.

A Minecraft screenshot of a dinosaur dig site with exposed dinosaur fossil, tents, truck with crates, and a holographic recreation of an ankylosaur.

ROM currently offers several Minecraft: Education Edition programs that build meaningful, personalized learning across a wide variety of themes including science, resource use, community, cultural respect, and coding.

One-hour monthly programs let you and your students learn about a topic under the guidance of ROM Educators.

Extended programs allow independent, in-depth exploration of a variety of subjects including Rocks and Minerals, Sustainability, and Coding.

For more information, please contact ROM Learning and be sure to include Minecraft in the subject line. (romlearning@rom.on.ca).

ROM Minecraft is generously supported by Barrick

Why Minecraft Education?

We use Minecraft as a tool for learning a little differently from the way students might play at home for fun. Read the summary of peer-reviewed research outlining the benefits of learning with Minecraft.

Read Now

Uses the intrinsic motivation built into the Minecraft platform to increase student engagement.

Captures all the pedagogical benefits of using models or dioramas to reflect student learning, but without the limitations of desk space or budgets (and no mess to clean up after).

Includes built-in tools for assessment, literacy differentiation, translation, and student security.

Cultivates STEAM skills including spatial mathematics, cartesian coordinates, engineering, circuit logics, critical thinking, and problem solving.

Develops critical 21st century skills including communication, collaboration, creativity, and social-emotional skills.

Professional Learning 2025-2026

Minecraft Guided Program Info Session - September 16, 2025 - Watch Here

Minecraft 101 for Teachers - September 17, 2025 - Register to view the recorded lesson

These one-hour virtual programs cover a new theme every month, ideal for classes that don't have the capacity for an extended Guided program. These lessons are structured for grade 4-8, but we welcome younger grades keen to use Minecraft, or older grades with creativity and curiosity.

Lessons begin at 9:30 am. Live attendance is recommended but not required; all registered classes will receive a link to the session recording. During the live sessions, teachers will still have the ability to pause and rewind the lesson as needed to accommodate their own students' pace.

Click on a lesson thumbnail in the "Monthly Museum Minecraft Lessons" section below to learn more and book. If you wish to participate in a lesson that has already passed, you will still be able to register to view the lesson recording.

2025-2026 Monthly Lesson Dates and Themes

September 24, 2025 - Building Community
October 15, 2025 - Museums, Mummies, and Minecraft
November 12, 2025 - Indigenous Education Month: Manito Ahbee Aki
December 10, 2025 - Computer Science Education Week: The Show Must Go On!
January 14, 2026 - Pimachiowin Aki
February 11, 2026 - Black History Month: The Hall of Innovation
March 11, 2026 - International Women's Day: The Hall of Innovation
April 8, 2026 - Earth Day Build Challenge
May 13, 2026 - International Museum Day: The Science of Minecraft
June 9, 2026 - Indigenous History Month: Pacific Northwest Coast

New events will be announced here and in our School Programs newsletter.

A minecraft screenshot of a community garden with trees and crops, showing windmills and an electric bus in the background.

A Minecraft screenshot of a person standing on a beach. Layered walls containing bones are behind the person, and fossil bones and shells scatter the shore.

Resource

International Women’s Day: The Hall of Innovation – March Monthly Museum Minecraft - Virtual

Learn how women’s invention and innovation is represented at ROM, and turn those innovations into a display in the Minecraft Hall of Innovation.

A Minecraft screenshot of a garden containing vegetable plots, flowers, beehives, and a greenhouse.

Resource

Earth Month Build Challenge - April Monthly Museum Minecraft - Virtual

Climate change and sustainability issues on Earth are going to require some creative solutions. It's time to key into your imagination and build some solutions in Minecraft.

A Minecraft screenshot of two large statues holding salmon on a beach.

Resource

National Indigenous History Month: Pacific Northwest Coast – June Monthly Museum Minecraft - Virtual

Honour National Indigenous History Month by using Minecraft to visit an Indigenous community on the Pacific Northwest Coast and learn how to help the village prepare for winter.

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.

Resource

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

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. Register to view the recorded lesson.

A Minecraft screenshot of a partially-constructed town

Resource

Monthly Museum Minecraft: Building Community - Virtual

Transform your local community for the better with the power of Minecraft.

A minecraft screenshot showing a desert crossed by a blue river, pyramids, a giant ankh, and other Egyptian elements

Resource

Monthly Museum Minecraft: Museums, Mummies, and Minecraft - Virtual

Dig up the real story about pyramids, pharaohs, and mummies with the ROM Minecraft team.

A Minecraft screenshot of several characters in Indigenous dress standing around a campfire in front of wigwaams.

Resource

Indigenous Education Month: Manito Ahbee Aki – November Monthly Museum Minecraft - Virtual

Explore the land where the Red River meets the Assiniboine.

A Minecraft screenshot of a small robot standing on a stage surrounded by flowers. On stage around and behind the robot are wacky Minecraft creatures in a variety of theatrical poses.

Resource

Computer Science Education Week: The Show Must Go On! – December Monthly Museum Minecraft - Virtual

Coding week! Curtain, lights! This is it, the night of nights. Let’s code an awesome skit. On with the show, this is it!

A Minecraft screenshot of a campsite in a winter forest. Several birchbark wiigwaams are set around a central fire. To one side, meat on racks cures over a fire. Several Elders dressed in warm winter clothing stand outside the wiigwaams.

Resource

Pimachiowin Aki - January Monthly Museum Minecraft

Travel to the Miskwewesibi campsite on Pimachiowin Aki, “The Land that Gives Life,” and join the Anishinaabe community to learn how to live in a winter forest.

A Minecraft screenshot of a game character with dark skin and a suit standing in front of a large building with classical columns.

Resource

Black History Month - February Monthly Museum Minecraft - Virtual

The Hall of Innovation has too many empty rooms – let’s discover examples of Black innovation throughout history that inspire us to fill them.

A Minecraft screenshot of a path leading across a rural landscape toward a large volcano with lava pouring down the side.

Students will begin their journey in the Royal Ontario Museum’s research centre in the fictional world of Rocklandia. From there, they will travel to three different research sites to help ROM scientists with their studies of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.

Along the way, students will encounter challenges blocking their path that they will need to code their way through with the assistance of Indigenous scientists and the Minecraft agent. After visiting all three research sites, students will return to the research centre and build their own museum to share their learning about rocks and minerals.

This program can be done independently or with Museum Educator support. Visit the lesson page for more details about live guided lessons and additional program supports.

Program Structure:

Virtual Visit #1 with a ROM educator for program introduction. (1 hour)
Independent class time to travel to each research site and complete coding challenges and collection missions. (Approximately 8 class periods*)
Virtual Visit #2 with a ROM educator to answer content questions about rocks and minerals or coding in preparation for museum build. (1 hour)
Independent class time for students to plan and build their own museums to show their math and science learning (Approximately 8 class periods*)

*Average estimate. Time requirements may vary according to classroom Minecraft and coding experience.

A Minecraft screenshot of a sunken cargo ship with fish swimming around crane arms and broken cargo containers

Inspired by Noelle Hamlyn: Lifers, this resource will include several activities covering Science, Art, Music, and Climate Change topics for Junior, Intermediate, and Senior grades.

Students begin their journey on a sunken cargo ship, and must use clues from the Virtual Lifers exhibition to unlock doors and find their way to the ship's bridge. From there, students are transported to their hometown and become the new Urban Planners, remaking the town to be more sustainable. Students will be able to engage in different activities based on different curriculum topics.

This program can be done independently or with Museum Educator support. Visit the lesson page for more details about live guided lessons and additional program supports.

Program Structure:

Virtual Visit #1 with a ROM educator for program introduction. (1 hour)
Independent class time to complete the escape room section of the world. (Approximately 2-4 class periods*)
Virtual Visit #2 with a ROM educator to answer content questions in preparation for the town remodel. (1 hour)
Independent class time for students to complete sustainability activities and remodel the town (Approximately 6-10 class periods*)

*Average estimate. Time requirements may vary according to classroom Minecraft and coding experience.