Schools Reinventing Cities

Close your eyes for a second and imagine that the city you live in has been rebuilt from the ground up with a sustainable future in mind. What do you see? Solar panels and wind turbines covering the rooftops? Lush parks and parklets? Maybe heat pumps, bus stops, and greenhouses?  

Schools Reinventing Cities is an initiative that aims to capture and collect those visions. Brought together in partnership between Minecraft Education* and C40 Cities (as well as mayors across the globe) it that asks millions of students around the world to use Minecraft Education to redesign their cities for a better and brighter future. The goal is to provide a platform for young people to make their voices heard, allowing the city planning process to be influenced by the future inhabitants of that city. 

The program includes an introduction to climate action, an exploration of the role that cities can play in the sustainable transition, the concept of green jobs, the need for innovative and sustainable climate solutions, and evaluation of the feasibility and impacts of proposed solutions. 

Any school, anywhere in the world, can take part by using a downloadable toolkit. This toolkit includes a full guide to the project, a lesson plan, a list of the unique items included, a workbook for students, and a certificate for anyone who participates. It’s designed to be used either by individual teachers or by principals and other education leaders across multiple classrooms. 

The only technical prerequisites are a collection of student devices that have access to Minecraft Education – which is supported on Chromebook, iPad, Mac, PC and mobile. Check out the system requirements and installation guides for more details.  

MEANINGFUL IMPACT 

By 2050, two out of every three people around the world will be living in cities. The decisions that we take today are crucial in deciding what kind of a future those people will live in. The good news is that we’re already seeing the positive ripple effects created by School Reinventing Cities. In its first year (2023), the program featured contributions for seven cities, where students got the opportunity to share their proposed solutions with local government officials. From the Schools Reinventing Cities Outcome report: 

“A key component of the success of the program is that the students are challenged to work within real life constraints. Minecraft has the potential to let anyone use their imaginations to create anything without limits, but the challenge requires students to work within the physical boundaries of sites in their cities. The result is that students channel their creativity into pragmatic solutions that foster their interests in the built environment and green jobs.” 

To learn more about the results and impact brought by the first iteration of Schools Reinventing Cities, you can download the report below. 

Schools Reinventing Cities is just getting started changing the cities of the world. Already, schools in Los Angeles, Tshwane, Quezon City, London, Calgary, Buenos Aires and the Netherlands have had their say. Will your city be next? 

* Minecraft Education prepares students for the future workplace by helping build skills like collaboration, creative problem-solving, communication, and systems thinking. With immersive lessons in every subject and creative build challenges designed to spark engagement in the classroom, it is included in most Microsoft 365 software subscriptions for schools with free teacher training. Learn more at education.minecraft.net.