A new class being offered at UT Dallas enables pre-med students to care for fictional patients in a virtual hospital. The twist? The students order tests, examine patients, and make their diagnoses within the blocky, video game world of Minecraft.

Instead of cracking open a textbook, students taking the MCAT prep course “Experiential Medical Reasoning” operate a “playbook” that’s embedded in the video game, which once was a cult favorite before achieving wild pop culture success—most notably in the 2025 hit “A Minecraft Movie.”

In the prep course’s playbook, students are challenged to make decisions about which tests to order for patients. They’re also tasked with reviewing symptoms and medical charts so they can arrive at diagnoses for conditions the patients may have.

Blocky hospital is a replica of Dallas’ Parkland Memorial

The Minecraft playbook allows UTD pre-med students to engage with advanced medical equipment in a safe, simulated environment. [Image: UT Dallas]

Using a digital twin of Parkland Memorial Hospital for its blocky hospital, the playbook was designed by IvyBee, a Plano-based startup founded and led by Dr. Walter Voit, an associate professor at UT Dallas and the founder of UTD’s Center for Engineering Innovation. The technology for the playbook is powered by Authura, IvyBee’s online course builder.

This is just the latest Minecraft educational tool developed by Voit and his team of scientists. 

In 2025, Dallas Innovates wrote about how Voit’s team developed a Minecraft-based platform for digital workforce training, teaching students about semiconductors, batteries, and polymers, and helping premedical students prepare for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). 

The work dates back to 2014, when Voit’s team launched Polycraft World, a Minecraft modification incorporating aspects of polymer science and engineering into the game. In 2020, UTD researchers received a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant use Polycraft World to teach AI systems to respond to dynamic and unpredictable environments, the university said.

“I realized how much I enjoyed playing Minecraft and how little my students enjoyed being in the classroom,” Voit said in a statement. “We want to use Minecraft to help expose students to information in a really fun, engaging way.”

Voit and his fellow researchers launched IvyBee more recently, with a goal of developing educational games embedded in Minecraft. IvyBee is partnering with UT Dallas to offer the for-credit MCAT prep course.

Students like the gamified approach

Biology senior Omar Choudhry (left) answers questions in a playbook embedded in Minecraft at UT Dallas. Dr. Robert Steininger (right), a Center for Engineering Innovation research scientist and IvyBee puzzlemaster, led the team that developed the playbook—which includes a digital twin of Parkland Memorial Hospital. [Photo: UT Dallas]

UTD students like what they see within the blocky hospital corridors of the platform’s Parkland digital twin.

“I signed up for the class because it sounded really cool,” neuroscience senior Charlynn Maina said in a statement. “It’s definitely a new way of learning, a fun way to approach preparing for the MCAT.”

“We definitely remember what we learn because we have to use that knowledge in the game,” Maina added.

Another student, Henock Abera, said that when he plays the video game, “I get to see more of what goes on behind the scenes and what I potentially could be doing as a doctor.”

Other students wonder how far this Minecraft world could extend across all UT Dallas fields of study.

“This is something that the new generation wants,” said neuroscience senior Sahar Bavandi. “I think this is a new step toward adapting education to technology.”

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