CCEA and Microsoft Education have created a free Minecraft competition to engage primary school children across Northern Ireland in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) and give them the chance to win prizes for their classrooms.
Microsoft have supported prizes for Gold, Silver and Bronze winners, with Gold rewarding schools with a £2,000 voucher for ICT school equipment and an all-expenses paid VIP trip to DreamSpace at Microsoft Ireland’s Headquarters in Dublin.
Entry is free and every submission will receive a certificate of recognition. Entrants will have the task of recreating an authentic Viking Settlement set in CCEA’s award-winning 'STEM in Minecraft' world.
CCEA’s aim is to encourage pupils to apply their curriculum knowledge, understanding and skills in a digital gaming environment.
Justin Edwards, CCEA’S Chief Executive said that the public body’s ‘STEM in Minecraft’ suite of resources became freely available and accessible to all primary schools in Northern Ireland in June 2019, adding that with it “young people will be able to take their classroom learning and infuse it with their own understanding, knowledge and experience of the outside world.”
Dr. Kevin Marshall, Head of Education at Microsoft Ireland commented:“Recent figures highlight that over 110 million people play Minecraft each month and its popularity is not fading.
"Given the numbers of young people that are already immersed in gaming, in particular Minecraft, CCEA saw the opportunity to harness games-based learning and bring it to schools in a structured way that supports the STEM agenda and provides support to teachers connecting learning across all areas of the curriculum.”
Michael O’Kane is the principal of St Peter's and St Paul's Primary School in Dungiven, and is also a ‘Learning Leader in Digital Skills’.
He added that the CCEA Viking World “gives the children the opportunity to be creative, develop key critical thinking skills and compare their own lives with the lives of Viking children from hundreds of years ago."
Details of the competition can be accessed at www.ccea.org.uk/stemworks/vikings. Deadline for entries is Friday 14 February 2020, with winners being announced on 23 March 2020.
