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

⁠— Day 1 - Set Up and What is Redstone? - 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 be introduced to Redstone, a tool used to power objects in Minecraft. They will learn the basics of redstone input and output to create an Ender Golf course that has Redstone-powered obstacles like pistons, levers, and plates in it. 
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— Day 2 - Redstone Clocks and Parkour - Redstone clocks are mechanisms that send redstone signals at specific intervals. Students will use Redstone clocks to build timed traps and obstacles to integrate into their parkour map.

⁠— Day 3 - Redstone Houses with Elevators, Doors and Lighting - Redstone can be used to build creative contraptions. Using what they already know, students will build a home decked out with elevators and other Redstone mechanisms inside.

⁠— Day 4  - Rollercoasters and Rails - Using Redstone rails, students will create roller coasters that can switch and auto-launch. 

⁠— Day 5 - Amusement Park Attractions - After gathering all they’ve learned in the week, the class will put together amusement park attractions using different Redstone inputs and outputs. 

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