Minecraft + 8th Graders + Sleep Deprivation = ?

We recently took our 8th grade trip to Washington D.C.  The ride is about six hours there and six back with several long trips between all of our stops.  We have a bunch of time to kill.  I usually encourage my students to bring their Nintendo DS, so I can crush them at Mario Kart...which I do (LRN2Powerslide). 

This year, I found out that I could run a mobile hotspot off my phone and set up a minecraft server.  I got a group of about six students to team up and play minecraft.  I took on the role of the team leader and we quickly produced a decent fortress.  The communication and teamwork inherent in this type of gameplay lead to a very productive bus ride and very few behaviorial issues.  Which is nice.

In the end, we had a well oiled machine of gatherers, designers, builders, and hunters.  We planned our next builds around breakfast and created during the long hours of monotonous bus travel.  We only ever had any trouble near the end of the ride home when two overly sleep deprived students began an in game conflict and eventually decided to rage quit.

 

Considering that the time could have been spend texting each other mindless filth, bothering teachers and chaperones, or playing the next hot mobile shoot-em-up, I think this was a great use of our time.