Historic NB: Playing in the Past
Explore digital twins of 20 famous historic NB sites NOW and THEN in 2km by 2km maps for use in Minecraft Education.
Explore New Brunswick across time.
Historic NB: Playing in the Past
Explore New Brunswick history by comparing the places we know today with landscapes ready to become the past.
Historic NB: Playing in the Past is a collection of 40 immersive 2 km × 2 km (1.24 mi × 1.24 mi) worlds created for use with Minecraft Education. The collection features 20 historically significant New Brunswick locations , with two complementary worlds for every site :
20 NOW worlds place students in a contemporary representation of the location and surrounding landscape.
20 THEN worlds present approximately the same geographic area as a deliberately less-developed historical terrain setting. These worlds are not intended to be exact reconstructions of a single year. Instead, they provide students with an open historical canvas where they can research, interpret, rebuild, investigate, and tell the story of the place themselves.
That means students can move between 40 worlds in total , comparing what exists today with what the landscape might have looked like before modern development changed it.
Real Places. Real Stories. Student-Built History.
Students can investigate transportation, settlement, defence, migration, industry, agriculture, waterways, communities, architecture, changing land use, and the people and events that helped shape New Brunswick.
The paired NOW and THEN format makes comparison central to the experience. Students might document evidence of change in the modern landscape, research a historical period, rebuild structures that once stood there, create museum exhibits, produce guided historical tours, interpret primary and secondary sources, or debate how a location should be represented.
The worlds are designed to support inquiry rather than simply show students a finished historical reconstruction. The history becomes something students investigate and build.
The collection also includes 110 curriculum and New Brunswick 12-Year Education Plan-linked lesson ideas , including general projects that can be used with multiple locations and activities specifically designed around each featured site. Historical Thinking Concepts are incorporated throughout to help students work with evidence, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspectives, and significance.
20 New Brunswick Locations
The collection includes paired NOW and THEN worlds for:
What’s included
- 40 Minecraft Education worlds
- 20 historic New Brunswick locations
- 20 NOW maps showing contemporary geographic settings
- 20 THEN maps providing less-developed historical terrain settings
- Approximately 2 km × 2 km of terrain for each world
- 110 lesson and project ideas
- Connections to New Brunswick curriculum and the 12-Year Education Plan
- Opportunities to apply Historical Thinking Concepts
- Activities adaptable across elementary, middle, and high school learning
- Ready-to-open worlds designed for exploration, research, building, storytelling, and historical inquiry
20 New Brunswick Locations
- Fort Beauséjour–Fort Cumberland
- Kings Landing
- Village Historique Acadien
- Boishébert and Beaubears Island
- Saint Croix Island
- Tantramar Dykelands
- Fort Gaspareaux
- McAdam Railway Station
- St. Andrews Blockhouse
- Fort La Tour
- Fredericton Garrison District
- Ministers Island
- Roosevelt Cottage, Campobello Island
- Petit-Sault Blockhouse
- Metepenagiag Oxbow
- New Brunswick Internment Camp Museum, Camp B/70
- Head Harbour Lightstation
- Tilley House National Historic Site
- Government House
- Carleton Martello Tower
Historic NB: Playing in the Past is an independently created educational resource by Jabberwocky AI. Jabberwocky AI is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially connected with the Government of New Brunswick, Microsoft Corporation, Mojang Studios, Minecraft, or Minecraft Education. Site names are used for educational and geographic identification. Worlds are educational interpretations created from available geographic and historical information and should not be considered exact architectural or historical reconstructions.