Excel and Minecraft Budgeting Project

Engage students, spark creativity, and build financial literacy skills in the Shopping in Minecraft project.

This project uses Microsoft Excel and Minecraft Education Edition in a highly interactive and practical manner. Everything included in this resource is 100% editable.

Included:

Minecraft Education Edition Shopping Mall world
Shopping Catalogue
Spending Spreadsheet
These resources are explained in further detail below.

The Shopping Mall

This is a Minecraft Education Edition world built on a flat grass biome. Students have to get their resources from the shopping mall, there is 8 different categories of shops to choose from and 48 different items in total. These categories are:

Wood
Rare Minerals
Minerals
Sand and Resources
Decorations and Dyes
Food and Produce
Functional Items
Animals
There is also an unlimited water supply and a stall to give players speed boosts and the ability to fly for easier building.

All items in the shop have been chosen to allow as much creativity as possible. An extensive range of tools and blocks can be crafted from the 48 items provided.

Each item comes with a cost which is tracked on a player scoreboard. There is also a Shopping Catalogue on Microsoft Word and a Spending Spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel.

Shopping Catalogue

This gives a visual representation of all the items sold in each respective shop and is helpful for students not as familiar with Minecraft. It lists all the prices and also gives space for students to annotate and mark down with a tally how much of each item they have purchased.

Spending Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet allows students to automatically calculate:

How much they have spent on each item.
How much they have spent in each shop.
What percentage of their spending each shop represents.
Pie and bar charts to visualise their spending.
Both a blank copy and a completed copy (with randomised spending numbers) of this spreadsheet is included. The Excel work in this project can be adjusted to suit the ability and experience level of students.

The possibilities are endless. Suggestions include:

Budget challenge: build the best house given certain constraints.
Build a community: students have to collaborate to build a small town/village.
Math emphasis: focus on the best buy situations and financial math that underpins the project.
ICT emphasis: focus on the excel skills required to complete the Spending Spreadsheet and represent their data accurately.
This is a great project for any mathematics or digital technologies class. It was created for the purpose of a Year 7 percentages project but has since been used in many different contexts.

Each time I run this project I get ideas for improvements or new items in the shops. Please leave a review if you have any suggestions.

I hope you and your students enjoy exploring this world and its potential!