Expeditions Xtra - Minecraft Challenge

Expeditions Xtra - Minecraft Challenge Throughout Term 3, as part of our Expeditions Xtra offer, students from our 66 schools have been engaged in a competition to research the chosen destinations of Tanzania and Switzerland and build villages from these countries using the Minecraft platform.

Last month we introduced you to Expeditions Xtra where our Global Campus and Expeditions teams here at the British International School HCMC joined forces to bring activities that would encourage students to explore, learn, question and build connections with the wider world, all from their own home or school. One of these activities was the Minecraft Challenge! Computing Teacher Mr Astbury tells us more...

Due to world travel shutting down and  our students across the world being unable to travel to our usual Les Martinets and Tanzania destinations in the latter part of the year, our Nord Anglia Education Expeditions Team decided to take a creative approach. Throughout Term 3, as part of our Expeditions Xtra offer, students from our 66 schools have been engaged in a competition to research the chosen destinations of Tanzania and Switzerland and build villages from these countries using the Minecraft platform. At BIS HCMC, over 50 students have been involved in our project showing great enthusiasm even as the competition started remotely during our virtual learning. They have supported our two smaller teams of 15 in creating our builds.

Despite some technical issues to begin with, some fantastic progress was made and a new world began to take shape. It became quickly apparent that some cohesion was required so a website was built and a colour scheme and style was agreed on. Our student leaders showed patience, great communication skills, and the ability to project manage a build…not easy!

Some students have contributed perhaps a lunchtime, while some contributed hours, but all worked together to produce a world with detail and charm.

The results are in...

In early June a select few spoke to our NAE Expeditions team in Oxford, England to present their world. After a nervous weeks wait, they were excited to find out they had collected the following awards:

• Tanzania world was voted Best Overall
• Swiss world was voted Most Realistic
• The Swiss build team were given a special award for teamwork

A video tour of the world will follow, but for now I hope the screenshots will give you a flavour of the hard work and teamwork that all our students put in.

The day I announced the results, there were cries of ‘Champions of the world’! 

Well done one and all.

Colin Astbury, Computing Teacher