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APS educator creates popular game for students
An Atlanta educator is getting accolades for a Minecraft game she created following George Floyd’s death. Felisa Ford says the game is being played all over the world.
ATLANTA - An Atlanta educator is getting accolades for a Minecraft game she created following George Floyd's death.
Felisa Ford says the game is being played all over the world.
After George Floyd's death at the hands of police, Minecraft and APS educator Felisa Ford wanted to do something to elevate the minds and experiences of Americans. But they realized they wanted to go beyond Black Lives Matter. The result is a very popular game called "Good Trouble" that is spreading around the world.
Fourth graders at Deerwood Academy summer school were not alive when Congressman John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge or when Nelson Mandela fought against Apartheid in South Africa. But they can now learn about historic event like that thanks to a Minecraft game created by Ford.
"They reached out to me to see if I could create some content around the Black Lives Matter movement and of course still reeling from the trauma of George Floyd and wanting to do justice to it. We knew we wanted it to be so much more than the Black Lives Matter movement," Ford affirmed.
The APS educator consulted with two more colleagues for many months to create the game. She says Congressman Lewis died during the planning stages, and the title became obvious.
"As we were planning, we thought good trouble because that is what Congressman Lewis wanted us to do, get in Good Trouble," Ford recalled.
The game includes international freedom fighters like Mulala in Pakistan, among others. Millions of people have downloaded it. "Time Magazine" even selected Ford as one of its 10 most innovative educators in 2022 and the students are totally engaged.
"I like that it talks about social studies and all the good people who did good stuff to have equal rights for black people," student Taylor McLeod remarked.
"I've been going around the world, and I've been learning a lot more than I didn't know about. It's really fun," student Harmoney Long said with a smile.
In May 2021, Minecraft determined the game had been downloaded 3.5 million times. Making it the most popular game in Minecraft's history.