The inspiring Minecraft Street Builders project continues to widen youth engagement in engineering. Discover how we brought Minecraft into more classrooms to widen participation in engineering among young people in Westminster.
This is an update on our 2023 Minecraft project. Read about it here.Ìý
Inspiring more young people with Minecraft
Discover the first stage of this project, which in 2023 empowered school students to design their perfect street through the magic ofÌý and a little help from local authority engineers who design borough streets.
In March 2024, Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä partnered with Westminster City Council (WCC) to deliver school street transformations using Minecraft workshops as a collaborative design tool in five primary schools across the borough.
Ìý
![Two Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä staff members stand in front of a classroom of children, some of whom have their hand up](/media/13988/resized-wcc_sustrans_minecraft_road_workshop_st_barnabas-6433.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=730&height=410)
Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä staff lead a Minecraft workshop. Credit: Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä
We used the results of a Healthy Streets audit of the streets around each school to spark discussion with school children across Year 3 to Year 6 on their perception of their school street.
We used the to agree with them on variety of design features that would improve their school street. Each pupil then had the opportunity to come up with their own design for their school street, using a Minecraft base model built by the Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä team.
![A child's hands hold an iPad showing a street design scene in the game Minecraft](/media/13989/resized-wcc_sustrans_minecraft_road_workshop_st_barnabas-6282.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=730&height=410)
Children from Westminster taking part in the Minecraft project. Credit: Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä.
Using children's innate creativity to design streets
Pupils were able to quickly produce creative ideas that varied in themes from colourful seating areas to adventurous play-on-the-way designs, giant trees, urban farms, rain canopies, public libraries and a variety of welcome signs.
The Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä team facilitated a group debate based on the main themes that came up in the pupils’ designs, generating a list of priorities of design themes for each school.
The Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä engineers and urban designers then fed these key themes into ambitious concept design proposals for the streets surrounding each school, including road space reallocation to support pupils’ health and growth.
Westminster City Council will be incorporating key features from the proposals in the consultation and overall school street design.
Making behaviour change real for younger generations
"Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä were commissioned to deliver Minecraft sessions across five of our schools to support capturing the pupil voice throughout Westminster’s School Streets Programme," said Carla Leowe, road safety officer from Westminster City Council transport policy team.Ìý
"They coordinated the bookings and their engineering expertise shone through with not only the pupils but staff at each of the schools.
"All pupils were engaged with having first-hand input into the area they frequent near-enough everyday which was empowering to see.
"This programme has not only helped pupils understand highway schemes through gamification but allowed officers to deliver a scheme that aims to make real behavioural change for younger generations and all of those that use our streets regularly. Thank you to the team!"
![Two Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä staff members look at iPads at school desks alongside children using Minecraft to explore engineering](/media/13987/resized-wcc_sustrans_minecraft_road_workshop_st_barnabas-6381.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=730&height=410)
Schoolchildren use Minecraft to explore highways engineering. Credit: Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ±¦µä
Work with us to give many more UK schools and engineers this opportunity
We invite you to take the next step towards meaningful youth engagement and inclusive engineering projects.
Let's start a conversation about how we can work together to create positive change and amplify the voices of under-served people in our communities.
Contact us if you're interested in exploring how our team can support you.
![pencil icon](/media/2205/guest-blogger.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=60&height=60)
Partnerships team
Thank you to our partners
We couldn't have done this without the collaborative efforts of Carla Leowe and Sharon Lewis at Westminster City Council.
provided 15 laptops preloaded with the Minecraft world file and shared their invaluable technical expertise throughout the workshops.ÌýÌý
Thanks to the who funded the project.
And the wonderful schools we worked with:
- St. Barnabas CE Primary School
- St. Vincent de Paul Primary School
- Our Lady of Dolours Primary School
- ARK King Solomon Academy Younger Years
- Edward Wilson Primary School
.