New Minecraft Mode 'RiverCraft' Teaches Students About
The Real-world
In conjunction with the UK Environment Agency, Microsoft has launched a new mode for
Minecraft: Education Edition (opens in new tab). Known as 'Rivercraft (opens in new tab)',
the mode is designed to teach students about the impact of climate-change-induced flooding
on local communities.
RiverCraft focusses on the £54.7m flood defence scheme currently being built in Preston, a
combination of flood walls, glass panels and embankments, designed to reduce flood-risk to
almost 5,000 homes in the area.
The mode contains three different games, each of which focus on a different area of tackling
flooding induced by climate change. "Managing Flooding" sees players build their own
version of Preston's flood-defences, before flooding the area to measure their success.
Pyramids " sees players explore how individuals can help alleviate climate change. Finally
"Our Local Environment" involves conducting an in-game ecological survey to locate and
record local wildlife species.
The mode was built on behalf of the Environment Agency by BlockBuilders, a Brighton-based
company that specialises in building Minecraft worlds for educational purposes. "We got the
3D data of Preston, which is freely available online, and turned it into a Minecraft world,"
Megan Leckie, Co-founder of Blockbuilders, told Microsoft.