These are the students’ learning goals and activities over the course of eight sessions:

— Day 1 - Set Up and Ender Golf - Our primary goal for this day is to assist students in setting up Minecraft and to familiarize kids with our course’s objectives. At the beginning of the class, we’ll introduce kids to Ender Golf and how they can establish rules and controls for a game. Students will then create their own Ender Golf course and learn how to playtest with others.

— Day 2 - Structure - We’ll teach students how to structure their games with a start point and an endpoint. They will then create their own unique parkour courses to playtest and refine with others.

— Day 3 - Concentric Development - Development should start out simple and then expand with details. Students will build a completable dungeon devoid of areas in which playtesters can get stuck on. 

— Day 4 - Formulating Rules - In addition to the dungeons they’ve created last class, students will build out rules for their dungeons and ensure the rules are easy to follow.

— Day 5 - Balance - In this session, students will explore the concept of multiplayer games and discover how to set one up. Students will then create a boat racing track with at least five obstacles in it.

— Day 6 - Variety - The next step is to add variety by implementing shortcuts or alternative paths to the racing tracks that students have created. To avoid confusing playtesters, students should actively avoid overloading the track with shortcuts. 

— Day 7 - Polishing -  What does it mean to polish a game? We’ll show students all of the  different kinds of ways they can polish their favorite mini-games to make their courses unique and one-of-a-kind.

— Day 8 - Showcase Day - This is the day for showcasing and playtesting! Everyone will get to play each other’s courses and provide feedback to each other for future improvements.

Connected Camps is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2015 with the mission to build a global online community where kids build, code, play, and learn from one another. Our programs are designed based on the extensive research in the learning sciences. The founders and leaders of Connected Camps, Mimi Ito and Katie Salen, are professors at the University of California, Irvine who specialize in the design of online learning experiences that are fun, social, and tied to academic outcomes. Learn more about the research behind Connected Camps at the Connected Learning Alliance resource site: https://clalliance.org/ 

One thing that makes our programs unique is our near-peer mentorship model. Our programs are led by young adults and college students, often with the help of high school volunteers. We hire counselors and coaches from top universities in computer science, game development, economics, and sports performance, and design and train them on how to facilitate project-based learning with younger kids. Our young instructors have the same passion for technology, games, and digital making as our learners, and take on the role of instructors, as well as fellow enthusiasts and relatable role models.  

Learn more about our organization at:  https://connectedcamps.com/about