Digital Manufacturing Education Using Minecraft— The Minecraft Cup —Takashi Doi

Minecraft Cup Director

1. What is the Minecraft Cup?

We have been holding a “National Minecraft Cup Contest”
to create worlds using the Education Edition of Minecraft since2019. In this contest, we give children a different theme eachyear, and they build and publish a world in Minecraft. For the 3rdnational contest, the Minecraft Cup 2021, our theme was “Futurecommunities and homes for the age of SDGs.”■ Figure 1: Educational effects of using Minecraft

Minecraft is generally thought of as a game, but it has thehighest sales in the world, with over 200 million units sold,and it has incredible recognition among children. But actually,
Minecraft is also used in educational settings. It is used invarious ways, such as having all class members work together
to build a structure and publish it, or to learn programming
within Minecraft. We think of Minecraft not as a game, but as adigital manufacturing platform. In this tournament, it is used asa platform for demonstrating participants’ powers of imaginationand creativity.
As they play, children develop abilities such as those shownin Figure 3. They become interested in studying the theme given
for the contest and their creativity is sparked, considering whatblocks and what kind of arrangement can be used to represent acommunity or a home. They also use programming approaches
to build circuits that operate using power, and they develop
cooperative skills as they play with their friends and classmates.
For the Minecraft Cup, participants are evaluated using arubric. Nine indices for “next-generation personnel” are used,evaluating based on five levels. These are used before and afterparticipating in the contest to study how the children’s abilities■ Figure 2: Evaluation rubric: Definition of evaluation items and levels

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■ Figure 3: C hanges in participants

may have improved.
The results showed that before and after participating in
the contest, skills such as science and mathematics literacy,expressiveness and design sense improved, and their curiosity
generally increased. Detailed results are available on our web pagefor those who are interested.

2. Why is the Minecraft Cup held?

We are not engaged in this activity to nurture Minecraftspecialists, or promote game sales. Our objective is to provide
opportunities for all children, to learn to identify and solve
problems using programming and digital manufacturing, andto build a learning community where they can learn together.
To achieve this, we are expanding our activities in collaboration
with Microsoft Certified Education Innovator teachers, who arepromoting ICT education in classrooms throughout Japan.
We often use the national high-school baseball championships
at Koshien as an example to describe our activities. I did notbelong to a baseball club, and not every child that starts playing
baseball is aiming to reach Koshien, but children learn manythings from baseball. Most players will not make it to Koshien.
Even so, there are great battles at regional tournaments and eventoday, games happening in various locations that we do not know
about. Children make friends through baseball, strengthen theirminds and bodies, and form connections with society. They
connect with other players, and also with coaches, teachers, andothers’ parents who support them. Our objective is to build adigital manufacturing community through Minecraft, similar tothe sports community built around baseball.
Throughout Japan, there already were many independent

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communities such as programming classes and personal computerclubs in schools. In operation of this tournament, these types oforganization have felt the potential of this contest and worked
on building submissions. In running the contest, our biggest
obstacle was insufficient understanding from parents and school
teachers. Parents and teachers would praise a child who wasenthusiastic about baseball; even if that was all they did, but if they
were obsessed with Minecraft, generally they would be scoldedor even have their game taken away. As is true with anything,playing too much baseball can result in a shoulder injury forexample, and Minecraft is no different. One cannot achieve results
simply by spending large amounts of time. We feel that there is a
striking lack of initiatives that create opportunities for children toshow their efforts in digital education and to receive praise fromfriends and family who support and encourage them. As such,
we are working to raise awareness of children involved in digitalmanufacturing and the adults who are supporting them, andholding this contest is part of that effort.
In particular, we are promoting the contest by sending contest
information to education committees in cities, towns and villages
all over Japan through ICT CONNECT 21, an organizationthat promotes digital education. We also have PR activities suchas engaging popular YouTubers as judges, using video to promote
it, and advertising in magazines from the editorial departmentof Corocoro Comics, which is one of our media partners. Even
with these measures, it was also necessary to have parents andteachers encouraging students to get their participation. We
have had more participants each year, but when we asked what
prompted them to apply, the most common answer was that theirschool teacher suggested it. Initially, most of the applicants werechildren who became interested because of another activity such asa programming class, but this base really seems to be expanding.
By reducing obstacles to participating and creating more
opportunities to publish participants’ creations, we want to create aculture that encourages children to try digital manufacturing.

what materials they were made of from their guide, and they took
notes enthusiastically on their tablets.
As its name indicates, the town of Taragi is known for having
good timber. The Shiiba branch manager of Kumamoto Mokuzai

3. Real Event: Taragi Minecraft workshop■ Figure 6: W ood, a local resource

In addition to operating contests, we are also creating
opportunities by holding events such as workshops. For example,in Taragi, a town of 9,000 people in the Kuma district ofKumamoto Prefecture, we collaborated with a local organization
called the Taragi Community-building Promotion Agency to holdthe “Taragi Minecraft Workshop” in March, 2021.
The workshop was held over three days, and involved studying
cultural properties and buildings in the region and then building
a world in Minecraft that reproduces them, as an introduction
to the town. 23 students from elementary schools in the town
participated. The children started with a tour of the town, during
which they heard explanations about the size of buildings and■ Figure 4: Taragi workshop■ Figure 7: Building with Minecraft■ Figure 5: Fieldwork at Otake family residence■ Figure 8: Design drawing of buildings being recreated

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(a local timber company) provided a chance for the children to see
and touch some real wood. In Minecraft, it is easy to obtain wood,
but in the workshop, they were able to smell and touch it, andgained a sense of the effort required to process real wood.
Next, they began building their creations, in teams of threeparticipants. Minecraft worlds are composed of blocks that areapproximately 1 m in each direction. In their teams, participants
collaborated, drawing design diagrams, selecting materials touse, and building their world. Although some teams had conflictor became distracted, they all worked together enthusiastically.
Teachers who came to observe were surprised to see theenthusiasm in the children’s’ eyes as they worked.
On the final day, we held presentations of each of thecompleted projects. The mayor of Taragi attended as a guest, andwatched all of the presentations. He commented that this digital
education was nothing like what he had imagined and that all of
the projects were wonderful.
Our impression after a series of workshops is that, beyond thechildren that participated, the parents, teachers, and the mayor
who watched the presentations really got a sense of the children’s
potential. One elementary school principal that attended the■ Figure 9: Recreating Ebisu Plaza, Ishikura Community
Centerpresentations immediately decided to integrate Minecraft intoclasses. Currently, all grade six students at that school have lessons
using Minecraft throughout the year. We feel that we can advancedigital education by gradually expanding this type of activitythroughout Japan. Starting this fiscal year, we have decided toconduct judging in separate regional blocks.

4. Online workshop connecting all of JapanFor the Minecraft Cup, we held qualifying contests dividing
the country into five regional blocks. This enabled us to increase
the number of announcements in each region in hopes ofstimulating activity in the community. Initially, we intended tohold many events in each region, but a state of emergency andother measures to prevent spread of infection were instituted due
to COVID-19, so we were unable to hold most of them.
As such, we collaborated with teachers in charge of eachregional block, holding hybrid workshops and seminars.
Participants gathered at real locations in regions where a venue
could be arranged and online where that was not possible. Thevenues were connected with each other using Microsoft Teams,and children all over Japan were able to attend classes together.
In one class, a top-class Minecrafter called Hizume joined asa guest, and explained how to recreate real houses in Minecraft.
Children from all of Japan were able to watch the video and alsoable to see each others’ facial expressions and reactions as the classprogressed, providing a deeper learning experience.

5. Online promotion conceived with partnercompanies

We worked with partner companies to plan online promotion
for this contest. In an online dialogue held jointly with our Gold
Partner, Sekisui House Ltd., professional Minecrafter, Shuichi
Tatsunami, visited the latest residences and showed how he had■ Figure 10: Minecraft Cup regional workshop

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■ Figure 11: Online dialogue with pro-minecrafter, Shuichi Tatsunami

recreated them in Minecraft. Various techniques are used in theselatest homes, such as how to install solar panels and designingfloor plans to create space for each room, which conveyed a real
sense of the connection between Minecraft worlds and real homebuilding.
We also planned online promotions together with Silver
Partner companies, Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd. and Norinchukin
Bank. In collaboration with these two companies, who areworking on community building and the agriculture, forestry andfisheries industries for the future, we sent promotions from thecenter of Tokyo Station to all of Japan. This promotion gave a real
sense of the connection between worlds conceived in Minecraft
and the real world, and how good-quality input is necessary
to produce creative expression. This initiatives show how very
important our partnerships with these companies are.

6. Support classes for special support bases

One of our objectives is to “maximize the possibilities of allchildren.” To begin using Minecraft requires a personal computerand internet environment. There are also some children thatcannot be reached through schools or programming classes, andother children who cannot go to school for various reasons. We areworking to create learning environments using Minecraft for thesechildren. This year, together with one of our advisors, Yasushi
Aoto, who is also Director of the Council of Organizations
supporting education and children in need throughout Japan,
we provided equipment and held online workshops for children
attending Saitama Youth Support Net. Many children having
difficulty with self-expression are able to demonstrate their own
abilities on Minecraft. We hope that by creating a cycle in which
older members can teach younger members in classes using
Minecraft, our efforts will be able to expand further.

7. Why did I start working on Minecraft Cup?

Besides working on this contest, I am also working on regional
community building. In 2015, I moved from Tokyo to an island in

Kagoshima Prefecture called Nagashima-cho, with a populationof 10,000, and I have been working on services and plans to solve
regional issues using ICT. Previously I worked at an IT services
enterprise. In my activities in the region, I realized that there arestill issues that can be resolved using digital technology. However,people to take on these issues were not being cultivated in theregion, and were leaving the area for the cities. It was clear thatcompared to cities, there are few opportunities to be involved withICT in such localities. With the GIGA School initiative, a PC
will be provided to all students in Japan, but there are still people
who will not know what to do with it. With aging and shrinking
population of Japan, schools are also being reorganized so that,as with other clubs such as baseball or ballet, the number ofavailable choices is decreasing. The number of children leaving thecommunity to go to university is also increasing, possibly relatedto these conditions. In the town where I am, the only high school
was closed more than ten years ago. In 2016, I began collaboratingwith an internet distance-education high-school, attempting tocreate mechanisms for students to attend high school even from
communities that have no school. However, the project did not gowell because we could not get adequate understanding from thestudents or their parents. What I learned from this was that rather
than just a learning environment, what is needed is content that isenjoyable to learn.
Amid these circumstances, we began discussion to establish
the Minecraft Cup in 2019, and I became the director of theproject. Digital manufacturing is not confined to a location.
Anyone, anywhere and at any time can connect. We feel that thisis more important for the expansion of this project than producing
any one specialist.
There is much more we want to do in the future, such as
operating a national tour, and holding more regional workshops.
I hope that if anyone reading this article is interested, they will
not hesitate to try Minecraft, and to encourage children to do soas well.

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