Minecraft teams up with Stacyplays for Roald Dahl’s 2018 Imaginormous Challenge
Minecraft Education has partnered with the Roald Dahl Story Company for a second year of the Imaginormous Challenge, a campaign that aims to generate a million stories by 2020 from students ages five to twelve. The 2018 Imaginormous Challenge invites students to submit 100-word creative stories by May 1st. Five “golden ticket” winners will have their stories transformed!
One of these young authors will be invited to visit the Minecraft game studio in Redmond, Washington, and work with a team of Minecraft builders led by YouTube creator Stacy Hinojosa (better known as Stacyplays) to create a unique world in Minecraft:
The immersive, sandbox world of Minecraft offers endless opportunities to create imaginative stories, build wondrous worlds and map narratives. Stacyplays has been telling stories with Minecraft since 2013 on her YouTube channel, which has gained over 1.7 million followers. Her video series Bookcraft journeys through fictional worlds, bringing stories to life in the world of Minecraft. Stacy’s work demonstrates the power of immersive storytelling, and how a tale can be told in numerous ways – aloud or on paper, with paint or clay, through dance or music or even Minecraft blocks.
The Imaginormous Challenge encourages students to use their imaginations and to put their ideas into both writing and crafting. Students can submit written stories and have the option to also submit a Minecraft build by uploading a screenshot or Minecraft world. Stories will be evaluated by judges based on creativity and imagination.
The Minecraft prize with Stacyplays includes the following:
- One student will be flown to Seattle, Washington, with a parent or guardian to visit the Minecraft studio in Redmond and meet members of the Minecraft team including game developers, designers and writers.
- Spend an hour with Stacyplays planning the Imaginormous Minecraft world in a creative kickoff meeting at the studio, and guest star in an exclusive Bookcraft video.
- Stacyplays and her team of Minecraft builders will create a Minecraft world about the story. The world will be shared with the student and on the Minecraft Education website for people around the world to explore.
Visit the Imaginormous Challenge website to learn more about how to participate, and to submit a story. The deadline for all submissions is May 1, 2018. Golden tickets will be announced in June, and prizes will be awarded in July and August. We hope the Minecraft prize will inspire students to craft splendiferous stories and mind-boggling Minecraft creations. Don’t imagine small – imaginormous!
The Imaginormous Challenge will help launch a new storytelling unit for Minecraft Education in Spring 2018. In the meantime, check out our Lessons page for more language arts content. Students can practice reading and writing as they navigate a Shakespearean adventure or explore a Minecraft island, and discover onomatopoeia and metaphor and simile with lessons based on two Roald Dahl classics, George’s Marvelous Medicine and James and the Giant Peach. We look forward to your participation!
