How does Minecraft coding help kids?

The worlds and objects in Minecraft are made out of thousands of blocks, which are built using 0s and 1s: the fundamental language of coding: either the block is there, or it is not. 1 or 0. On or off. Different blocks like water, dirt, and swords have different properties, as you can imagine. Coding is specifying exactly what a computer will do and defining how it will operate. We teach kids how to understand Minecraft’s inner code and leverage it to engineer really cool things.

In this digital era, kids already know their way around computers, but learning how to program them will provide them with an extraordinary and tremendously useful skillset.

Our classes develop intuitions for engineering, the workings of programming logic, and how different elements of physics shape our lives: water, gravity, soil, lava, plants, animals…

Is Minecraft a good introduction to coding for kids?

The key to teaching young people to code is to get them motivated. Our Minecraft course is perfect, because it combines a fun game they love with a subtle yet effective introduction to how coding works.

The way Minecraft hooks kids can be leveraged to help them learn a useful skill, in a way that doesn’t feel like work.

Minecraft can be enhanced with code that allows players execute all kinds of cool actions: including generating monsters, giving players increased health or items, and even telling the non-playable characters (the villagers) to do specific things.

Because of the relative simplicity of Minecraft as a game, learning how to modify it is a good stepping stone to learning to manipulate and create code for other games and programs.

Do you want more information about Minecraft? Read our next article - Minecraft Coding for Kids – Tips & Tricks

Is Minecraft Coding easy for kids to understand?

Coding languages often involve a lot of strings of words, numbers, letters, and difficult grammars, which involves a lot of typing. This amount of typing often intimidates kids who can’t type quickly.

However, programs such as Minecraft: Java Edition offer the ability to modify the game with single lines of code. For example, the command: “/time set day”, will change the game time to day instantly. Learning a simple command like this can make a huge difference to how kids think about games, computers, and the physical world around them.

Other commands like the ‘fill’ command allow players to fill entire 3D rectangular with blocks, automatically. The fill command allows you to set up parameters in which a rectangular prism will be automatically generated built out of the blocks you specify, per the specific coordinates you pass on to the game. This is one of the beauties of automation.

The teleport command, along with a command block: which is a special kind of block whose use we teach, in combination have the potential to enable a player to step on a pressure plate and teleport to a particular place every single time they step on that pressure plate.

Boosting Creativity and Minecraft Programming

By using commands like ‘fill’, ‘say’, ‘tp’, and others, we build an understanding of how we can instruct computers to help us do things. We also build an understanding of what each block does, and by using these blocks functionalities we can create works of creative and sustainable engineering, such as automatic farms, chronologies of interesting events, and mysterious castles. Computers are engines of creativity, and Bridge Academy teaches you how to start steering these marvelous mechanical beasts.

Are you interested in this concept? Enroll your kid NOW! - Online Programming With Minecraft