Girls' Coding Camp in Minecraft: Learn Lua & Solve Coding Challenges (5-Session)

These are the students’ learning goals and activities over the course of five sessions. Please note, this camp is a series of story-based challenges in which students will have to code solutions to complete objectives:

— Day 1 - Set Up and Introduction - Our primary goal for this day is to assist students in setting up Minecraft and to familiarize kids with our camp’s objectives. Students will start off in the cargo bay and bio dome where they will code their robots to mine and gather resources automatically.

— Day 2 - Activate Power and Reach Safe Room - Students will learn how to code their robots to navigate a maze and activate the power to reach a safe room.

— Day 3 - Safe Room - Using their robots, the class will work together and harvest food in the safe room by coding tools.

— Day 4 - Defense System - To repair the defense system, students will gather resources from the cargo bay and learn how to code “obelisks” to power the defense system.

— Day 5 - Escape Pods - Students will put their knowledge to the test by answering a series of computercraft based questions. They will then program robots to solve math problems before they escape from the Spaceship!

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 

This class does not require any out-of-class work although if students wish to explore this subject any further, our instructors can provide guidance so they can continue to practice coding on their own time. 

At Connected Camps, we assess each student’s progress by engaging them in reflection of their own work and the work of their classmates. By building in Minecraft and applying concepts taught in class, our students are able to solidify their learnings through hands-on application. Our counselors’ focus is to provide qualitative feedback to further each students’ individual goals and interests, and we do not use letter or number grades.

In addition to our in-class reflections, our counselors also provide post-session recaps that offer a summary of what is accomplished each day. Through these summary reflections, students are able to review the material and share with their parents what they did in class. We find this approach allows kids of different interests and abilities to engage with our teachings in a way that is particularly relevant to them.

7 hours 30 minutes per week in class, and maybe some time outside of class.