These are the students’ learning goals for the club:
— Collaboration Through Teamwork - Our students are encouraged to work together and collaborate towards a common goal! Students will team up during group activities to build without any resource restraint in Creative Mode.
— Learn Conflict Resolution Skills - As every student is different, they may encounter differing opinions or wants and needs from another student. Our counselors are available to help facilitate students in finding a common ground during unexpected times of emotional stress.
— Build Character and Confidence - Our aim for this club is to build students’ confidence and enable students to communicate and express themselves in a group setting. Students will participate in challenges in which their work is evaluated for future improvement.
— Project Management and Coordinate Work - With each new session, students may start a new project or be able to participate in a project they’ve been working on. Kids in this club will learn how to pace themselves as they start and complete projects. During group projects, they will also learn how to prioritize objects and coordinate work between themselves and others.

Activities:
— Build battles where each student will take a broad topic and build structures to represent those topics.
— Group builds where each student will get to contribute their piece towards a themed project.
— Scavenger hunt builds where each student will hunt and gather resources and build structures based on the material they have.
— Contract builds where each student will take use a set budget to craft estate for “Minecraft clients” and profit from their creativity and objective completion.
— Game builds where each student will work together or independently to design a basic mini-game to share with the class.

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