Course description
Students work on the Minecraft Education platform. They begin with learning how to use the screens, keyboard and mouse, they learn how to move in the 3D world. Students perform simple calculations, within the range up to 10, to determine the size of a structure they then build using programming blocks. Students become familiar with such terms like sequences, loops, conditional statements.
The second module is about game design on the Kodu Game Lab platform. Kodu is a tool created with designing 3D games in mind. Students can modify, among others, the look of the map on which the game takes place, the dynamics and movements of the camers, and the behaviour of the characters.
During the course students have various adventures and create their own world – full of buildings and animals. Students face challenges which develop their creativity and spatial thinking so that in the future they would be able to implement their own projects. The course uses block (visual) programming.
After the course students:
- Modify game worlds and program the movements of the characters on the screen
- Understand and apply language constructions, such as loops, variables and conditional instructions
- Use block programming on the Microsoft MakeCode platform
- Develop the ability to solve problems and algorithmic thinking
- Know the definition of coordinates and perform simple numerical calculations
- Think spatially and create shapes and structures (building numbers and letter in the game from blocks)
