Minecraft is a game with simple graphics and a blocky appearance. In the world of Minecraft coding for kids, you use different 1×1 types of blocks to make everything from a building to a flower. Minecraft was originally written in Java and later in C++ and other languages like Python, and is one of the most popular gaming platforms to code games and more importantly – for kids to learn coding and develop games.
The real key to teaching coding to kids is to make them feel that they can put their thinking and create things. Minecraft coding for kids offers ample opportunities for creativity, as Minecraft is a fun and simple way to be introduced to coding and its aspects and it doesn’t have predefined rules and goals.
Minecraft allows for coding to be implemented immediately so you can see exactly what you are doing in the game in real-time. This is far more useful than other games, which you would have to continually close and reopen repeatedly every time you made a change just to see the results.
Coding languages often involve a lot of typing strings of text and numbers with a syntax to be followed. This can often seem daunting to children especially when they’re beginning with coding. However, programs such as Minecraft Education Edition offer a far more visual and less wordy way with drag and drop element interface. This visual programming can then be used as a stepping stone to write more complex code and perform complex operations.
MineCraft Modding
A popular way of overriding or modifying functionality is by using mods in Minecraft, which is why mods are very popular. Mods will include changing players behaviour, increasing players health, giving specific purpose to non-playable characters, generating monsters, and others. Children will write some basic Python code to override behaviours using mods.
Minecraft offers multiple opportunities to learn
Children can learn multiple ways of providing instructions to the computer – console, command-line, visual drag & drop editor, Java, Python code and Javascript code using Blockly. So, once the child works on Minecraft there are multiple ways to work around to develop an environment and to work with the characters and players.
At UnicMinds, children will start by learning the fundamentals of coding and the Minecraft environment by adding changes to the existing Minecraft games, slowly progressing to building their own characters and structures in Minecraft games. In the second half of the course, children will make their own multi-player games in Minecraft and become proficient at it.
1:1 live online courses provide a great start for children keen to start coding on a highly visual and 3D interactive platform like Minecraft. While the platform is truly awesome, children will need that hand-holding to learn methodically and graduate into developed forms of programming.
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Hope this is useful, thank you.
Learn more about the funniest skins you can download for Minecraft.
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