Minecraft Experiment

Objective or Purpose: To see if playing minecraft will affect your mathematics

Hypothesis: They will do worse at the flashcards after playing minecraft

Materials: Minecraft, 20 flashcards, and a stopwatch

Procedure: Let them play minecraft for 3 hours, then time them as they do the flashcards.

Record how many they got wrong and how long it took them to do 20 flashcards.

Then, 7 days later, do the same thing except they don’t play minecraft before the flashcards

Results:

Set 1

(After Playing Minecraft for 3 Hours)

What We Did	Bob’s Results	Frank’s Results
Amount of Flashcards completed:	20	20
Amount of Flashcards answered Incorrectly:	6	6
Amount of Time Flashcards were completed:	3:02.72	3:00.94

Set 2

(After Having a Normal Day)

What We Did	Bob’s Results	Frank’s Results
Amount of Flashcards completed:	20	20
Amount of Flashcards answered Incorrectly:	5	6
Amount of Time Flashcards were completed:	2:22.61	3:36.19

Conclusion: Bob did remarkably better on the first set than on the second. 

He got less wrong and completed them in much quicker time.

Frank got the same amount wrong on the first set and the second. 

His time was slower on the second set. So he did a little bit worse on the second one.

There are some differences I noticed as I did this experiment.

In the first set I noticed:

-While they were playing minecraft, Bob and Frank would not make eye contact when 

I was talking to them. When I asked them to get off so I could do the experiment, they barely

listened- almost completely ignored me- and it took them about five minutes to get off 

minecraft and actually acknowledge me.

-While doing the flashcards, they both got upset and nearly flipped and gave up 

when they came to a harder one, saying, “I don’t know! I can’t do it!” And things like that. 

I encouraged them to keep going but I honestly thought they might quit.

-I can tell which flashcards they have memorized because when they come to one they 

don’t know, they use their fingers and skip-count.

In the second set I noticed:

-When I mentioned it was time to do the experiment, they both made eye contact and 

listened and cooperated right away.

-While doing the flashcards, neither of them got frustrated or mad but worked it out, 

willing and determined to find the answer.

-For Bob, the ones he got wrong were mostly 1 digit away from the answer. He was 

very close but couldn’t get them exactly right.

This is not proof that minecraft hinders your mathematics(considering that science 

cannot prove anything), and it does not even hint at it. While Bob did much better on the 

second set, Frank did worse.

I realize that I must do much, much more experiments like this to find more reliable results.

I also take into consideration that both boys are growing and learning every day, so 

the experiment will never be completely reliable.

But, even so, it helps me to think more about electronics(not just minecraft) and how they 

can affect us.

While I cannot be sure if it changed their mathematics, I know very well that their 

attitudes were completely altered.

It makes me think twice about how much time I want to be spending on electronics.

Note: Bob and Frank did not know what the experiment was. The only thing they knew 

was that they were being timed, and they must try to answer as many flashcards they 

can correctly.

(Names were changed for privacy reasons)

Date: April 22, 2018      Written by Alabama Yutzy