We can learn a lot from a video game.

What basic power tool best repels a zombie horde, for example, or the proper combination of kicks and punches to bludgeon an opponent into submission.

Even how to determine the volume of a swimming pool, as in measuring its dimensions and then multiplying length by width by height.

Yes, math. In a video game.

And not just in any video game, but one of the more popular games of all time, Minecraft, a LEGO-meets 8-bit open world game played by millions worldwide.

Mark Stevens, an education technology instructor at Bowling Green State University, is employing a still-in-development educational version of Minecraft as a learning tool, not only for school-age children and teens, but for his own students as well.

His goal is for his students to create in-class curricula, say, fourth-grade math or second-grade level reading, in Minecraft, and discover, as future instructors, how they can use emerging technologies in a classroom.

As Stevens put it: “We’re taking a game and applying or utilizing its gameplay in some way to teach” in what’s called “game-based learning.”

OK, so we all remember teachers using card and board games as learning tools, the “spoonful of sugar [that] helps the medicine go down.”

But since when did video game fun and education form their unholy alliance?

Well, 1971, when Oregon Trail first appeared in a Minnesota junior high school classroom as a Basic — literally — computer game, one that became a forward-thinking history lesson phenomenon that’s appeared on every generation of computers since, as well as many video game consoles.

Stevens, 48, who grew up with Pong, the Atari 2600, and the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer — look it up, kids — is following in that decades-long tradition.

“We’re teaching the middle childhood educators how to create educational content in the Minecraft world,” he said. “There are universities and other colleges out there with game development courses for commercial games, like EA Sports. Our bent is we’re trying to teach them how to use games in their classroom as an alternative method of curriculum or educational delivery ... and I don’t know of any other university doing that from an education level.”

What got him to this point is the need to address the breakdown in the current educational paradigm between teacher and student.

The first generation to be truly engulfed in technology from an early age, children are often far more comfortable with tablets, computers, and smart phones than their instructors.

This tech divide is creating problems in the classroom.

“There’s a lot of disconnect with students and teachers,” Stevens said. “We’re looking at other ways to connect with students. I’m giving my educators another avenue in which they can explore teaching.”

So, “rather than giving Jimmy the 20-problem math work sheet, which Jimmy hates, we can say, ‘Hey, Jimmy, here’s Minecraft. Go in there and work on math,’ and they’re going to get the same reinforcement, theoretically.”

Ah, “theoretically.” That’s a key point.

Stevens began this program only a year ago as part of his PhD dissertation and is fine-tuning it with his own students before he moves it to the next test phase: in classrooms across northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

But already there’s keen interest in what he’s doing, he said.

“I have plenty of teachers 10-year, 20-year, and 30-year veterans who are very interested in what we are doing and are going to make their classrooms available in the future so that we can test,” he said. “I’m looking at educational change and curriculum changes ... The teacher does math lessons and this is additional reinforcement.”

Contact Kirk Baird at kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.

First Published August 5, 2016, 4:00 a.m.