A Victorian primary school’s students are using Minecraft to build ideal communities. Source: Kevin Jarrett, Wikimedia Commons
Grade three to grade five students at Watsonia Primary School in north-east Melbourne have been creating ideal communities in Minecraft.
This is part of a program by Monash University and VicHealth where students were asked to design and build communities where people are connected, active, and eating well, using Minecraft Education Edition.
The program, called Kids Building Future Program, will be open to all Victorian children in grades three to six next year, with the best ideas being pitched to local councils or state leaders.
Ingrid Noack, digital learning leading teacher at Watsonia, said the Minecraft Education Edition was a great tool to help kids understand how community design could impact health outcomes.
“The students absolutely loved working in teams, they loved the engagement of the Minecraft world and the gamification of it,” Noack said.
“There were great conversations about how we can make healthy choices easier.”
Monash University Associate Professor Deana Leahy said the educational Minecraft was an “ideal space” for students to act as community health researchers and planners, and build a better, healthy community.
“We do need some new approaches to health education, and I think this is a new approach that is cross-curriculum and it’s fun,” Leahy said.
“We’ve got three challenges to get kids thinking about what makes a healthier community, then kids enter a construction zone where they pick a challenge they want to design a solution for.”
VicHealth chief executive Dr Sandro Demaio said this program brought the opportunity to elevate the vision and ideas of children and help turn their vision into reality.
“We really want to listen to young people, understand the vision they have to make Victoria a healthy place and take that to the decision makers we have access to, whether that’s local councils or state leaders,” Demaio said.
The most innovative communities built will appear on the VicHealth website.
Dr Demaio said he wouldn’t be surprised if some of the ideas were implemented in the real world.
