Pretty much everybody everywhere knows about Minecraft by now. It's practically a household name, and for good reason--it's the ninth-best selling PC game, ever, with over twenty million copies sold.

But one of the most interesting and exciting developments in Minecraft fame is its functional appeal to children.

Here's a tiny, tiny list of nearly-infinite things you can teach kids with Minecraft:

Physics

Engineering

Geometry

Math

Teamwork

Art theory

Survival

Geometry

Achieving self-imposed goals

Green stranger danger

There's been an explosive use of Minecraft in the classroom, where teachers employ the game to demonstrate all sorts of neat stuff. Over at MinecraftEdu.com, a group of instructors have teamed up to design a custom mod that helps other teachers create learning environments for their students. But it doesn't stop there.

COMPULSORY FUN

The Viktor Rydberg School in Stolkholm, Sweden, has clued in on the excellent tool that Minecraft provides teachers, making a Minecraft-based class a mandatory part of their curriculum for 13 year-old students.

The appeal of Minecraft is in its possibilities. It provides a means to achieve something with limited resources, and allows an impermanent world in which to stretch creative boundaries and make mistakes.

If you're interested in lesson plans or creative problems to explore with Minecraft, check out the following resources.