- Level Up, Calgary! is the
opportunity for students,
through the use of
Minecraft Education Edition,
to be able to design possible solutions
for the City of Calgary Downtown Strategy
and pursue those being built
in the real environment
by the City of Calgary.
- One of the first reasons
that we used the Minecraft
Education Edition
is our students already
know how to use it.
They love using it,
so it provides an opportunity
to embed the curriculum
through problem solving, creativity
and students get to help architect
their own learning adventure.
- Level Up, Calgary! is where
teachers are able to engage
with community and complex problems,
present them to students with purpose
and create the conditions for them
to come up with those solutions,
utilizing the tool of
Minecraft Education Edition.
- Right out of the gate, we had
12,000 students participate,
so we had students that
were going on their own time
outside of school hours,
and that wasn't required.
The challenge was really framed in school
is all aligned with curriculum.
I mean, the chance to be
able to build in Minecraft
and have that realized outside of that
and submitted to the City of
Calgary for consideration.
And we had four winners that were awarded
and they had an opportunity to connect
with real world experts,
NPCs represented in game
and these are real City
of Calgary employees,
urban planners, the mayor
of Calgary was represented
in that world.
- To have Level Up
taking place in our city
has been incredibly impactful.
Level Up matters because
it's taking something
that kids are already connected with
and allowing them to do
something different with it.
It becomes authentic
because they're familiar
with Minecraft and now they
understand how that tool
can help them design a city.
- So some of the benefits of
Minecraft Education Edition,
if you consider a reluctant
reader or reluctant writer
trying to find their voice,
we've seen students that
are expressing themselves
in Minecraft, telling their stories,
and building their narratives.
And how empowering is
that for those students?
It's tremendous.
- One of the thing I love about Minecraft
is whether students are five or 18
decreases the restrictions in learning.
It's their own world.
They get to collaborate without
sometimes the restrictions
we put on them as teachers,
and even as adults.
- These students have
powerful, powerful ideas.
One of the winning
entries was a submission
by a grade four student.
And her vision was for
climbable abstract public art.
And she's gonna realize that
vision, that's happening.
She's gonna get a chance to go downtown
and meet with the City of Calgary planners
to help bring that to life.
- I remember looking at
the very first submission
that came in and thinking,
holy moly, this is amazing.
The level of detail, the thoughtfulness,
the meaning behind why they had
created the worlds they had,
unbelievable and heartwarming
to know that our youth
are interested in what Calgary
looks like years from now.
- My vision for the future
of Level Up, Calgary!
is that we're setting the
stage, not only for Calgary,
for Canada, for the world,
how it is to take these tools,
make them available to students,
enhance educator confidence
and drive solutions that really address
what our world needs next.
(gentle music)