It’s that time of year again: Hour of Code with Minecraft: Education Edition and this has become something of an annual event for my children and I to complete together.
Learn basic coding concepts to correct mysterious mishaps throughout history! Travel back in time to save the future in this free Hour of Code lesson in Minecraft: Education Edition. Players will choose their own adventure and connect with great innovators and inventions in science, architecture, music, engineering, and more. Follow the steps below to get started!
Source
If you’re keen to get started then click here for the Hour of Code webpage or sit back and enjoy the YouTube overview of the theme this year:
What I noticed from the coding challenge this year was just how slick the guided and scaffolded learning experience was. It’s clear that that Minecraft team have been mindful of students and educators who may be new to Minecraft gameplay and they’ve added visual cues and guides, more in-game instruction and some handy shortcuts to avoid frustration. The result is a fun, fast-paced introduction to coding through game-based learning in MInecraft that has a lot of replay-ability (given there are multiple historical challenges you can jump to, but only require completion of three to receive the certificate).
If you’re new to Minecraft and Hour of Code I can’t encourage you enough to give this a go – if you’re a veteran of his annual challenge then you’re going to be impressed with how far this lesson has evolved. The good news is if you’re keen to have a go with previous challenges, they’re still available through the in-game library:
Code For Free – Hour of Code 2021 Is Free To All Users
If you don’t currently have Minecraft: Education Edition licensing you can still do this Hour of Code for free. First, you can download the application for free from here (Windows, iPadOS, MacOS and ChromeOS all supported). If you have no account you can choose to complete the free lesson:
Once you’ve clicked the “try a demo lesson” you’ll be presented with the following screen:
If you’re playing the free lesson, you’ll see the “Demo Lesson” in the top right and the “Player” name (this would be replaced with your name if you have a licensed user account). It is possible to unlock the full game from here too with a licensed user.
