Danish Government Puts ENTIRE Country on Minecraft to Aid Teachers

Geography lessons go virtual: Danish government creates Minecraft version of ENTIRE country to help teachers.

Entire country was recreated by the mapping department of the government.

Teachers can also utilize the Minecraft lesson plans to make education more accessible.

Published at 18:06 EDT on the 25th of April 2014. Updated: 19:01 EDT on the 25th April 2014.

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The Danish government has recreated the entire country in the popular computer game Minecraft.

The first country to be fully integrated into the huge Minecraft games The government hopes that it will students have more fun learning. students.

It even designed plans for teachers' lessons to guide them through this virtual version of their country.

The Ministry of the Environment in Denmark has created an Minecraft model of the country for players to explore.

The downloadable model consists of 4 billion blocks and needs one Terabyte of storage space.

What is MINECRAFT?

Minecraft was first introduced in 2009. When you start the game, the player is placed in a 'virtually endless game world.'

They can then explore various terrains, such as forests and caves.

For a bird's-eye view the landscape, players can fly in the air.

To construct towns and cities players are given blocks and tools.

As players progress, they can gain advanced tools and building blocks made from various materials.

The game was initially made for the PC but now there are Xbox 360 and mobile versions available.

The model is comprised of approximately 4000 billion bricks. It will take up around 1TB (1000 gigabytes) to download the entire country.

'We have constructed Denmark online in Minecraft to allow young people can plant their own forest and build riding schools, lakes biogas plant, wind turbine and many more,' said , said Kirsten Brosbol, Danish Minister for the Environment.

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"Imagination is the only limit."

"This is our way to create a connection between the digital world and the natural world."

It was developed by Simon Kokkendorf and Thor Bjorn Nielsen from Geodatastyrelsen, the Danish mapping division of the government.

They used publicly available information about the country ranging from elevation models to information about buildings and roads, and 'translated' it into Minecraft's characteristic bricks.

The couple also designed an interactive navigation system to ensure that visitors can easily navigate their own neighborhood in the model.

They will also be able to look at the natural landscapes and nature as they are in real life.

'Uou can 'go for a stroll' through the countryside everywhere in Denmark and see any location in Denmark roughly in the same way as Google Street View,' the Agency said.

Orestad school in Copenhagen has been testing the system for teaching students maths and geography.

'In the old days the teacher would roll down the old map of Denmark in the class room and have the students slave over the names of the various regions of Denmark according to Katrin Kristensen, a teacher at Orestad school.

Future Danish schoolchildren and others will be able to record in the game the animals and plants they've observed in nature.

"Now Denmark is available right here on children's tablets or laptops, helping to achieve the goal of using digital tools to teach.

"We have had positive experiences using Minecraft in teaching maths for instance.
MINECRAFT SERVER LIST

'With the 'real Denmark available as a Minecraft world that will give us even more opportunities to inspire learning.

"Pupils find it more enjoyable to work on their own home streets, street and so on."

The developers made a change to the game: they eliminated the ability to use Dynamite in order to blow up certain areas.