Ten Minecraft Education Moments that Made 2023 Pure Magic

Another year of Minecraft Education magic is coming to a close, and we’re feeling just a teensy bit sentimental about all the amazing things learners have experienced, created, and explored this year. Take a walk with us down memory lane, and let’s commemorate the top ten #MinecraftEdu moments of 2023.

Minecraft Education’s glow-up

After six incredible years as Minecraft: Education Edition, we decided it was time to shake things up with a fresh new vibe. We said goodbye to our old name and our old look and emerged as Minecraft Education.

The future looks bright, fun, and blocky. Here’s to many more years of joyful learning!

A new generation of cyber citizens

We’re all about fun and exploration, but it’s important that young people know how to stay safe and responsible as digital citizens.

This year we released the Cyber and Digital Safety Progression, which takes young people through three different learning paths with content aligned to Cyber.org and CSTA standards:

• Cyber Safe equips younger students with basic cyber and digital safety skills.
• Cyber Fundamentals embarks on an exploration of digital citizenship and cybersecurity.
• Cyber Expert goes deeper to build greater digital fluency and cybersecurity skills.

Schools Reinventing Cities

Who better to think about the future of our cities than the young people who’ll call them home for decades to come? We partnered up with C40 Cities on Schools Reinventing Cities, an initiative where students could share their voices and help make their hometowns safer, greener, and more just by modeling in Minecraft Education.

From New York City to Stockholm, from Quezon City to Calgary, you wouldn’t believe the fantastic visions that learners created across seven different urban areas.

And no spoilers, but there’s more in store. Stay tuned!

Blast off to the moon to learn STEM

Who hasn’t looked at our big, beautiful moon and thought, “What would it be like to strap into a rocket and take a ride up there?” With NASA’s Artemis Mission, humanity is headed back to that lunar landscape.

To help learners capture the extraterrestrial excitement, we launched the Artemis Missions worlds. From building the Artemis Rocket to hurtling through space, these worlds are helping young people prepare for the next era of space exploration, building the skills they’ll need for the great beyond…

Take a load off, teachers!

Educators: you’re the brilliant, compassionate, hard-working heroes who keep the learning world rolling. And you deserve a cozy space to kick back, relax, and connect.

For Teacher Appreciation Week, we launched the Minecraft Teacher’s Lounge. With more than 7.5K educators in the community and counting, it’s a space to share your thoughts, start discussions, and just mix and mingle with friends.

There’s plenty of room, so join today!

Trails and Tales helps learning prevail

We sure do love it when we can add features that keep students engaged and activate new learning opportunities. This year’s Trails and Tales update spawned two new mobs in Minecraft Education: Camels and Sniffers. There are also highly diggable archaeological sites, improved coding Agent capabilities, a new biome, opportunities for adding extra design elements to worlds, and much, much more.

Latina excellence inspires students

To celebrate Hispanic heritage and the dazzling array of cultural expressions and world-changing accomplishments from across the diaspora, we teamed up with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and created the LatinExplorers series.

This year’s installment, LatinExplorers 2, illustrates the stories of three trailblazing Latina women: singer Gloria Estefan, astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa, and workers’ and women’s rights advocate Monica Ramirez. This world helps learners appreciate the challenges they faced, celebrate their victories, and learn the qualities that made them unparalleled leaders.

Math on the mummy march

You might have a student or two who thinks math is… a little spooky. Why not lean into it? Cambridge Mathematics joined us to create a creature-feature adventure that helps students learn that oft-dreaded subject.

M.A.T.H. Mummy Mayhem transports players to Egypt, where people say a Mummy roams the ancient sites. Learners put their mathematics skills to the test to unlock the secrets of the past.

Hour of Code for the AI generation

What would November be without a new Minecraft Hour of Code? Generative AI is all the rage this year, so we figured we’d help students and educators get ahead of the curve and build AI skills. Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI does just that. Players venture through time to create AI-powered inventions as they learn about responsible AI and build their computer science skills.

Tons of classrooms around the world ran Hour of Code events and fun lessons, and our team loved visiting schools to see firsthand how students can explore responsible AI in our beloved blocky universe. Kudos to all for a great CS Ed Week!

Teachers are top of the heap

The tip-top of our highlight reel is always seeing the innovative, inspiring, engaging ways teachers use Minecraft Education in lots of different settings. Build challenges, group creations, storytelling, encouragement—you craft ways of teaching that go beyond our wildest imaginations!

We love to watch your stories unfold and your builds get built. Here’s just the tiniest fraction of the work we’ve seen and celebrated this year:

With all this excitement, you might be asking yourself, “How could we ever top 2023?” Well let us tell you, big things are coming. As amazing as this year has been, we can’t wait to share new and exciting horizons for your learners to explore.

If you’re new to Minecraft Education and these experiences sound exciting to you, this is a perfect opportunity to dive in! Find out how you can bring joy to the classroom with immersive, game-based learning experiences built for everyone. Get started today!