The Chilean school that developed a digital mathematics game to transform how students play and learn with numbers
Liceo Bicentenario de Excelencia Oriente de Rengo, a public primary and secondary school in Rengo, Chile, is rebuilding students’ confidence in their mathematics capabilities post-COVID through Matecraft, a collaborative, game-based experience that has helped more than 600 students from the school achieve 80% and higher in maths evaluations. When students returned to school after the pandemic, many had lost motivation, felt disconnected from learning, and, more significantly, had begun to doubt their own ability to succeed, with mathematics a focal point of this crisis.
After seeing how video games had become central to students’ lives during the pandemic, the school began to explore how this medium could be leveraged for learning, starting with a large-scale online tournament that integrated the logic of Minecraft into teaching mathematics through missions, challenges and collaborative problem-solving. The positive response was overwhelming, cementing the potential of the approach, leading to the development of a structured methodology that was introduced into classrooms to increase participation and engagement, driven by play-based learning. Students are in control of designing, programming and building servers within the game, connecting them to advanced digital skills development. To ensure the model is fully inclusive for students who are not able to engage with the video game, physical cardboard cubes physically replicate the same learning experience so that they are not left behind.
A key component of the implementation is ‘Team Matecraft’, a group of 20 seventh-grade students with advanced skills in both mathematics and the game, which plays a central role in supporting their peers and helping teachers adopt and implement the methodology.
Teachers work collaboratively with learners to redesign entire mathematics units, using the game environment as a space for exploration and reasoning. Students are given the agency to become part of the process, and those with experience in the game support teachers in building and adapting the virtual environments.
While initially sceptical of introducing another digital game to their children, teachers actively invited parents to take part in sample lessons, highlighting the benefits and value. Parents now embrace the approach and have become co-developers of a code of conduct that establishes clear expectations for student behaviour at school and at home.
Lessons have become spaces for strategy, discussion and shared problem-solving, where students support each other and approach mathematical challenges with excitement and curiosity. A broader ecosystem of student-led initiatives has been developed, including MateGame, where they design their own educational video games, and MateFinanzas, which connects mathematical reasoning to real-life financial decisions.
Using the Matecraft methodology, more than 80% of students have achieved proficiency in key mathematical concepts. Over 90% of students report feeling confident to share ideas and participate in class, and more than 80% have progressed to the next mathematics unit, meeting Bicentennial programme benchmarks. The school has reported a significant decrease in anxiety towards mathematics, with students describing lessons as motivating and engaging.
Over the past four years, Matecraft has moved beyond a pilot initiative to become a sustained, school-wide practice, now implemented across 16 classes. Aside from the impact on students in the school, it has reached a further 300 learners from other institutions through shared implementation, while engaging over 50 teachers in its adoption. The model has also been taken up and analysed by school leaders across the Rengo and Olivar municipalities. Its development has been supported by the 2021 Choose Innovate Award, enabling infrastructure development to expand and refine the approach.
