Innovation, Creativity, and Pixel Art

If you’re new to Minecraft: Education Edition, you may have not heard of pixel art. Pixel art is when you use Minecraft’s blocks to create 8-bit art inside the Minecraft world. I run a 21st century life, innovation, and technology program for my school district called Fair Haven Innovates. I use Minecraft: Education Edition to help my 4th and 5th grade students develop the soft skills they’ll need to be successful when they start running businesses with me in 6th – 8th grade and as they grow up.

I see every 4th – 8th grade student in the school; over 1,000 kids. This year, one of my 4th grade classes decided they wanted to create a pixel art world together. Now this isn’t new, but what was new was the quality of the pixel art they created and the teamwork they used to get it done! The twelve 4th graders who make up the “Pixel Art Team” went above and beyond when it came to working together to achieve their goal.

I’ll let the head of our Pixel Art team, Biggi, take it from here:

Hello Minecrafters! In case you didn’t know, we are the Pixel Art team from Knollwood Middle School in Fair Haven New Jersey. We are very pleased and excited to show you our Minecraft world and pixel art creations.

We have worked on the world for many weeks. We have each worked on different builds and we each have one or more creation to show you in the world. From a Minecraft sword to the Joker, from Pokemon to emojis, to our favorite video game characters and memes, we have something for everyone to enjoy! We only have Innovation Lab once a week, so we worked hard on this world for 18 weeks! We’ve never worked so long on a project or had so much fun. With twelve people, it got hard at times, but we always talked through our problems and came to a compromise that made everyone happy.

Thank you Minecraft for expanding our minds by making an education edition to learn with in school. We are having a great time and learning a lot!

On behalf of the 11 other members of the Pixel Art team, I’m Biggus Gumus, 4th grader.

And on behalf of all of my 4th and 5th grade students, I’m Chris Aviles, encouraging you to develop student skills with Minecraft: Education Edition.

Chris Aviles is an educator using Minecraft in a k-8 makerspace. Check them out at www.fairhaveninnovates.com.