London’s mayor is asking young minds to redesign the city with Minecraft Education.
Feelgood Friday: Making London Greener Through Minecraft Education
Written by Ollie Bradley at 01/27/2023, 03:41 AM
Whether it's acting as a place of solace for disabled gamers, providing a digital haven for free speech, or being the canvas for some stunning digital spectacles, Minecraft often stands out as being a force for good. A trend that continued this week as Microsoft announced that Minecraft Education will be instrumental in making one of the world's largest cities a little more eco-friendly.
In his mission to make the United Kingdom's capital greener than ever, London mayor Sadiq Khan is appealing to the minds of the future to help reinvent one of its oldest boroughs, Croydon.
To do this, he has joined forces with Minecraft in this year's Design Future London Schools Challenge, a competition that will task students with reimagining Croydon as greener, safer and more prosperous than ever using Minecraft.
The competition can be entered by any London-based student between the ages of 5 - 24. Participants must download the London world in Minecraft Education, talk to the NPCs (which includes Mayor Khan himself), then get stuck into rebuilding or enhancing Croydon as they see fit. Participants must then create a video tour of their creations, explaining the changes that they have made.
Whether the UK government will actually implement (and then reimburse the creator for) any of these ideas is not guaranteed. But this initiative is an ingenious way of getting the "minds of tomorrow" thinking about and directly engaging with global issues by placing it on their doorstep with one of the world's most popular video games.
Not to mention it is making Minecraft Education free to all London schools, which at the very least is great news for students.
"Creating a greener, fairer and more prosperous London for generations to come is a key priority of mine. Achieving my missions of tackling air pollution and reaching net zero carbon by 2030 are a huge part of this, so I'm thrilled to be getting help from the voices of tomorrow," said Khan.
The closing date for the contest is April 25th, and interested parties can apply via this link.