— Day 1 - Set Up and Architecture Styles: Our primary goal for this day is to assist students in setting up Minecraft and to familiarize kids with our course’s objectives. We’ll focus on the importance of using your resources to meet client needs rather than personal interest and understanding the differences in styles and structures and how that relates to contracts. 

— Day 2 - Economy and Plots: In today’s session, we will learn the concept of an economy and how to utilize resources. We’ll focus on determining the best way to use money for a profit rather than for fun alone, and explore the importance of purchasing order. Finally, we’ll also introduce the concept of buy/sell/trading with other players rather than relying on buying in bulk. 

— Day 3 - Exterior and Interior Design: The inside matters too! Our primary goal for this day is to learn different techniques for creating interior and exterior design in Minecraft. We’ll focus on the best ways to create interior and exterior design in Minecraft, how to stage a house, and how design can impact value.

— Day 4 - Skill Application: Students will take this day to apply the budgeting, design, and architecture skills learned so far to improve their buildings. We’ll spend the entire class working on our contracts in order to practice these new skills.

— Day 5 - Business Partnerships: This is the final day of the camp where we’ll discover the many elements of an effective partnership: sharing goals, splitting profit, and sharing resources. Students will have an opportunity to collaborate with one another to practice effective teamwork.

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.

숙제 제공
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.
제공되는 평가
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.
제공되는 성적