Answer: Minecraft

In early 2013, a school in Stockholm, Sweden, the Viktor Rydberg school, made headlines by introducing a new technology into their curriculum. No, it wasn’t your typical give-all-the-students-iPads bit of tablet mania; the school instituted a mandatory class for all 7th grade students focused on the wildly popular building game Minecraft.

The idea for the class was spawned by a national school competition called “Future City” wherein students across Sweden are encouraged to submit proposals on how to make things better in the future through urban planning and development. Teachers at the Rydberg school saw Minecraft as a perfect tool for accomplishing a wide variety of educational objectives and as a way of planning for the Future City competition. Students used Minecraft to build virtual cities complete with water, electrical, and transportation grids, as well as housing and supply networks.

Teachers reported great success with the unconventional teaching tool and student engagement was high as the students felt a deeper investment in the project in light of how much time they had spent mastering the game and building the city. We’re sure Markus Persson, Minecraft inventor and Stockholm native, would be proud.