Minecraft Education Build Competitions

Screenshot of the Minecraft Education Make & Model Binary Builders world.

Following my four-step Minecraft Education classroom integration plan, we just completed step 3, the build competitions!

Students play ready-made worlds individually. (We played different Hour of Code games for this year’s Computer Science Education Week.)
Students join a teacher-hosted world to build individually or in small groups. (I hosted a world the last day before winter break at the end of class for students to build something that makes them happy, individually or in small groups.)
Head-to-head build competitions! (We used the Minecraft Education esports subject kit Make & Model world called Binary Builders!)
Collaborative small team project. (Later this spring teams will participate in the Peace With Nature challenge.)

Here’s how to access the Build Battle Binary Builders world:

Screenshot of the Minecraft Education play screen. — Start by clicking on PLAY.

Screenshot of the Minecraft Education Lesson Library page. — Click on the Lesson Library.

Screenshot of the Minecraft Education Library choices. — Click on Subject Kits.

Screenshot of the Minecraft Education Esports subject kit. — Click on the Esports kit.

Screenshot of the Minecraft Education Esports kit to choose build battles. — Click on Build Battles.

Screenshot of the Minecraft Education Build Battles. — Click on Make & Model: Binary Builders.

Minecraft Education screenshot of the Make-n-Model Binary Builders world with Create World button showing. — Click on Create World to start the game.

Minecraft Education screenshot to start hosting a world. — Push the ESC key on your keyboard to bring up the settings. Click on the tab with the four people image then click on the Start Hosting button.

Minecraft Education screenshot of a join code. — Share the four image join code with students that will be competing to allow them to enter the world.

Binary Builders world Registration desk screenshot. — Fly down to the desk and right click on the Registration NPC in the middle.

Registration speech screenshot from Binary Builders. — Click on Next to get the choices needed to set up the game.

Binary Builders world registration NPC speech with choices for the game. — Choices to start the game. I started by clicking on the Set Build Timer button to put 15 minutes on the clock.

Here’s how the game looks in class:

While the two teams were competing, I had the rest of the class working on an individual game. I chose the Investigators because it is a fun game that teaches kids about fact-checking and verifying sources for a school newspaper. That and it took kids days to finish the game (most did not finish the game!).