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Fri March 29 2024

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Minecraft package for future highway engineers

7 Sep 21 Minecraft, the video game, now has an education package available with UK road-building projects to cultivate young engineers.

National Highways (formerly Highways England) has teamed up with Minecraft to produce a STEM learning package for children.

Game players can explore three proposed roads schemes that have been created in the game: the Lower Thames Crossing, A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements and the A303 past Stonehenge. They can learn what road designers have to take into account when planning such schemes, including archaeology, biology, ecology, civil engineering, communications technology and coding.

Five games and a creative mode have been developed, along with lesson plans that teachers can use with their students aged 7-11 (key stage 2) and 11-14 (key stage 3). 

National Highways talent delivery lead Natalie Jones said: “We want to inspire the next generation of talented engineers and scientists, on whom the country’s infrastructure and national economy will one day depend. Our ambition is to seek out the next James Dyson or Dame Sarah Gilbert and help put them on the path to a fascinating life and career.

“With the help of Minecraft and the in-game activities, students will get first-hand experience of what would go into building a huge bridge or digging a giant tunnel. In real life these are multi-million pound structures that are carefully designed and then built by experts. These skills and expertise help to create the motorways and main roads that keep us all moving, whether going to work, delivering goods or keeping families and friends connected.”

See highwaysengland.co.uk/minecraft  for more details.

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