Minecraft Hour of Code Tutorial: TimeCraft

Welcome to this year’s Hour of Code Lesson, TimeCraft! A Time Culprit has travelled back through time and altered important events in human history. In this adventure you’ll use code to help fix these mysterious mishaps and gather clues to find the culprit! To start, download the latest version of Minecraft Education Edition.

Check out the website for a downloadable educator guide, classroom presentation, coding solutions and extension activities to continue learning after Hour of Code. Go ahead and sign in with your school or organisation account. Click Play and then View Library. Click Subject Kits, then Computer Science.

Choose this year’s Hour of Code Lesson and click Create World. If you don’t have a login, open Minecraft Education Edition Choose the demo path, accept the terms, click Play, Start Lesson, and then this year’s Hour of Code.

Once you’re in the lesson, right click to press the grey button and start your journey in the Ephemera One space station. Make your way towards the Institute for major errors in time. You can use the keyboard and mouse or touch commands to move.

If you’re using an iPad, check out the lesson plan for details on how to navigate using touch. When you see an NPC or non-player character like Tara, read what they have to say. For help with reading, click on the book icon to open Immersive Reader.

You’ll decide which coding language to use, either MakeCode blocks or Python. If you’re a beginner, we recommend you start with blocks. If you feel ready, go ahead and select Python. Once you select a programing language, you cannot change it during gameplay, so if in doubt, select the blocks.

The first activity is to select your Time Agent, your coding helper. Move towards the Time Agent you would like to use and make your selection by clicking the button. Now that you’ve selected your Time Agent, we’ll use it in the test area.

Press C or tap the Agent icon to launch your Time Agent. Follow the trail and then use your talk device to bring your agent to you. Then open code builder by pushing ‘C’ and practice your coding skills in this tutorial. After the tutorial, head over to the timeline

And select your first time split to fix. Then head over to the time pod to travel back in time! We’ve travelled back in time to this jazz club in New York City, but something is wrong! Right click the musician NPC to learn more.

To begin this challenge, use the talk device to transport your Time Agent to the beginning of the activity. To start coding press ‘C’ or tap the Agent icon at the top of the screen if you’re using touch. Drag and drop blocks and press play when ready to run your code!

For those of you using Python, the starting point is the same. Press ‘C’ or tap the Agent icon and you will see the Python Coding Editor. Remember that in Python, you will need to type. Be careful when typing. If you make a spelling or syntax mistake, the code won’t run!

Look carefully at the examples that are given to you. When ready, run your code! If you need help, use your hint button. If you have used your algorithmic thinking skills correctly, your code will run successfully. The Time Agent will navigate through the maze and collect the musician’s trumpet!

After you have successfully completed the coding challenge in the time split a secret button will be revealed in the space! But you’ll need to find it. Locate the secret button to reveal a clue about the Time Culprit, the one causing all the trouble.

You’ll have the option to guess the Time Culprit after each time split. If you find a clue, be sure to use it! However, if you do not find the clue, you will still get to vote for the Time Culprit. Make your best guess!

After each time split you’ll teleport back to the Timeline Computer to select your next activity from the timeline. Make sure to look up to the big screen for a clue for where you should go next.

Select a time split to investigate and head back to the Time Pod to travel to that specific historical event. Your goals are to successfully solve three time splits with code and find out who the Time Culprit is.

You may interact with a designer at the Great Pyramid at Giza, as they need help with geometric shapes. Or assist astronauts by delivering the mathematical calculations for their Moon Mission!

Or you can use your Time Agent to help the palaeontologists put the dinosaur fossils back into place with this palaeontology puzzle! Remember that each challenge can be solved in a multitude of ways. If you are stuck, use your hints or check out the coding solutions on the website.

After you’ve completed three activities and found the Time Culprit, you can keep playing and coding by selecting a new Time Agent and travelling through time for another adventure! When you’ve finished, press ‘escape’ to exit the lesson and then click the ‘I’m Finished’ button.

This will allow you to collect your Hour of Code certificate. Embrace a coding mindset and use computational thinking to solve problems, not just today, but for the rest of your life. As you will learn, computer science is everywhere and for everyone! Start your Hour of Code today!