In this article for Hello World Issue 17, I spoke about how our 10 classes took part in build challenges over a few weeks to help inform the playground that would be build as part of the school's playground renovation project.

We used the Make and Model Pirate Cove esports world, downloaded from the Minecraft Education library and easily accesssible to all. This meant that each class was split into two teams: a green and yellow team. They then built their designs on giant pirate ships to contain their designs to a focused area and keeping them within a size limit.

The esports worlds work well because they have timers. Everyone is transported at the start to their build area, which they cannot leave. This, and the giant timer displayed on the sails of the ship, helps to keep pupils focused on the challenge.

Another bonus of using the esports world is that they already have a structure block added for you to easily export builds. You may not want to or need to do this but it enables you to export into CAD software or to even print the builds on a 3D printer - truly bring their designs and imagination to life!

At the end of our school build challenges, we had 20 different designs (2 per class) to inform the actual design of the playground. We learnt from the designs what our pupils wanted and were able to incorporate their ideas into the final playground.

Creating a build challenge is extremely easy to set up. It keeps pupils focused. There is a strict time limit to build within and you can link it to any area of the school curriculum that suits you. I used what I had learnt from this build challenge experience to setup my Minecraft esports club.