Minecraft Modding Course: Create a Minecraft Mod (8-Session)

— Day 1 - Set Up and MCreator: Our primary goal for this day is to assist students in setting up MCreator and to familiarize kids with our course’s objectives. To start off this course, students will learn what modding is and how they can enhance the gaming experience. Students will also begin brainstorming what kind of mod they would like to create!

— Day 2 -  Creating Items, Tools, and Armor: Students can craft custom items that are built from ores. Students will brainstorm their item’s properties and create at least one item related to their ores. With their ores, items, and recipes in mind, everyone will learn how to custom make their own tools and armors! 

— Day 3 - Procedure and Mod Elements: A procedure is a set of coded instructions that tell your computer how to run a program, calculation, or even a Minecraft block. In this session, the class will make their own procedures for their custom ores and items so players can interact with them.

— Day 4 - Biomes, Dimensions, Custom structures: Within a mod, students can also alter the environment around them! We'll spend the day adding biomes and dimensions to create a more filled out mod, giving your students a sense of progression.

— Day 5 - Blockbench and Mob Models: Students will explore another tool, Blockbench, to design custom 3D models within their worlds. Students will primarily focus on how to create their own mobs, which will be the goal for Day 6 as well.

— Day 6 - Mobs and Custom Behavior: After designing the 3D models of their mobs in Blockbench, students will then learn how to customize their behavior. Students will get to decide whether their mobs are friendly or aggressive, and what kind of interactions their mobs will have in their world.

— Day 7 - Custom Structures: Students will have the opportunity to add custom structures to their mod as a finishing touch. These custom structures could range from jungle temples to medieval ruins, and everything in between!

— Day 8 - Wrapping Up: To wrap up the mods, we’ll show students how to integrate any final, smaller mod elements to their mods. This makes the mod presentable, enjoyable, and attractive to other users. They will also learn how to export their mods to do with them as they please!

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 alongside one another. Our programs are designed based on 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 directly 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, social studies, and the arts, 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.

The curriculum for this program was designed by a team of counselors pursuing degrees relevant to the material at hand. The learning experiences in this class are driven by these counselors’ academic expertise in the field, along with their desire to share their passion for the subject with a group of excited learners. All of Connected Camps’ curricula are vetted by the organization’s Product Manager, Matthew, who possesses a Masters in Secondary Education and a deep belief in the power of collaborative virtual learning.

This class does not require any out-of-class work. We do offer optional challenges that students can work on as an extension of what is taught in class. We provide guidance and instructions for students who are inspired to delve deeper into the topic. The purpose of these challenges is to give students the opportunity to supplement their learning with additional material that aligns with their passions and goals. Students may then integrate their learnings into their project and showcase their accomplishments to their classmates.

With this approach, students can explore the subject on their own. We give students the opportunity to share what they’ve explored independently with the class.

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.

1 hour 30 minutes per week in class, and maybe some time outside of class.