Minecraft brings own young coders from the traditional coding template to the three-dimensional (3D) platform, where they can incorporate their ideas into existing games and to create their own unique world. Through comprehension, creation, realization & development, they do not only learn coding in a happy and relaxing way, but, even more importantly, also achieve all-rounded self-development.
One of the distinguished features of Minecraft is to bring our students to a 3D space, to understand its concept. There was once a parent who was worried and frustrated about her son for not able to complete building some toy bricks, even under her guidance. So happened she put his son to our Minecraft course. Unbelievably after 2 or 3 classes, that parent come back to us sharing that her son has successfully built the whole set of bricks on all his own.
It is because the characters and items in the Minecraft games are all illustrated as 3D, so while the student play with them, they gradually learn and pick up the 3D spatial concept, which also helps with their future learning of mathematics.
Coding with Minecraft requires students to think out of the box, so to actualize ideas and thoughts concretely on the Minecraft platform. Our young coders have the whole world to create, where they can design and plan all the details, instructions, flows of the games or applications. They can also modify those games existing in the platform, to any extend they would like to, from adding new characters to creating an entirely different gameplay. Minecraft is definitely a good boost of creativity and innovation for the students, giving them the opportunity and freedom to create and invent.
When the learners have the concrete ideas of what to be done or their expected outcomes, it is time for them to learn how to convert ideas into real products. The Minecraft world is similar to the real one, where products or outcomes would not just happen or appear in a blink of eye. Everything happens for a reason and requires a great deal of designing & planning. Constructing a building is not like drawing one on a paper; you need to build up from a good foundation and then level by level with solid infrastructure, in order to complete the construction that lasts for long. Minecraft resembles a mini world, where one could realize his own ideas with boundless creativity and practical coding skills.
Minecraft is not merely a collection of games, but an all-rounded educational tool. During the “game”, students have to think and code to make sure their characters stay alive; so in the first place, they need common knowledge and survival skills, i.e. wood to make fire, bricks to build houses. So, taking our Minecraft course is not only about coding, but while exploring the games, there will be a lot of general knowledge delivered for all-rounded development of the student. This is why we deem Minecraft as a library of books, which students can learn through fun games.
Course Content
Minecraft is fundamentally a pool of computer games. Definitely we are not going to spend the time just playing with the games, but to learn the coding knowledge behind those games in the Minecraft platform, and then to create more games ourselves. Students can realize all their creative ideas by coding with Minecraft, including modifying the existing characters or items in a gameplay, and adding more of those which are designed by them.
At the same time, as the Minecraft games are designed to be displayed in 3D, students can have a better grasp of the 3D spatial concept while working on the games, which is important to their future development.
Final Project
Before completion of the course, it is time for each student to consolidate what they have learnt, and produce a unique project of their own. During the very last class, each of them will become a public speaker, presenting and demonstrating their own designed games in front of the tutor and their classmates.
What will you get after completing the course?
- Clipped video of final project presentation
- Overall learning evaluation report
- Tutor’s comments and recommendations
- Course-completion certifica
Target Students
Young coders aged 10 to 13, who do have previous experience of coding, are welcomed join us on this magical coding / modding journey with Minecraft.
Things You Need
We will provide all learning material during the course, except that each student has to buy a user-license from Minecraft before the first class.
Level 1
The first level of the course would be an introduction of the basics of Minecraft coding, which they called it “modding”, to prepare for the creative works in the future. We shall also bring the students to the 3D world, transiting from drawing on a paper (2D) to designing in 3D, such as locating a suitable spot to place an item in the game, or piling up the items. This would give them a better idea of the spatial concept in real. In level 1, we would teach the students to code for a game and construct the functional logics. So they could use the function keys, say to repeat a command instead of using redundant programming codes; which these are important essential concepts in the coding world.
Level 2
In level 2, we shall apply the skills learnt in level 1 for more advanced creations. We encourage our RoboCoders to create some mini games, which they have to design and plan for all the details on their own, including the game rules, the beginning and ending points, the characters, scoring system, etc. At this point, the students are already capable of creating complete game-works, which can be launched to the Minecraft platform and to share and have some fun with the other players around the world.
Level 3
In level 3 of the course, we shall teach more advanced coding techniques for Minecraft, which includes more complicated concepts like “making a list”. We shall dwell deeper into various gaming elements, in order to refine them in details, such as the scene-settings, gaming rules and logics. Therefore, coders are demanded for greater extend of creativity and imagination, to establish a whole unique world in Minecraft.
Level 4
When promoting to Level 4, students should already be equipped with most of the basic coding skills of Minecraft Modding. Their skills on event handling and focus on more complicated concepts and logic will be further refined in this course. Having various concepts applied on different outcomes is the key to success. Students are required to build a parkour game in Minecraft world, which changes the game world completely.
Level 5
As the final level of Minecraft Modding, students will be introduced how Artificial Intelligence is applied in gaming world. They will work on computer simulation, which allows the computer program to find possible solutions. In the latter part of this course, students are required to build their basic AI system, to solve a matrix-liked puzzle challenge.
Minecraft offers our Robocoders with a totally different coding/modding experience which definitely brings them to a whole new perspective of coding. After they complete the 5 levels of the course, we will give personalized recommendation and arrangement regarding their next step for more advanced courses.