Epic Citadel/MinecraftEdu/BYOD English and Science Unit

Students will document and design a new city using MinecraftEdu. Working through the design process they will create e-portfolios, using their own devices, to record their learning journey. Students will also construct and edit texts based on their character roles, experiences and learning inspired by the virtual world of Epic Citadel. These will be published in the Nova Citadel library (MinecraftEdu). Their project will be presented to parents at the end of year presentation evening December 12, Week 10.

Mrs Cavanagh and Mrs Booth are working on an integrated English and science unit for stage 1-3 inspired by the Epic Citadel app which was released in 2010. The above synopsis is linked to the work Mrs Booth is doing with the children on Friday and Mrs Cavanagh is focusing on grammar, punctuation,vocabulary when composing texts and skills with using a thesaurus amongst other things. With the new NSW English syllabus for the Australian curriculum about to be being implemented (Term 1, 2014) this unit ties in extremely well to new learning outcomes. Students are using MinecraftEdu (developed by Mojang, Finnish and American teachers) to build their model citadel documenting the whole design process on their own devices (BYOD: Bring Your Own Device) or those provided by the school. This is a new initiative for the school which enables students to take further ownership of their learning. The students are engaged and enjoying this unit immensely. Nathan (Mrs Booth’s son) visited the school to help with design ideas and support students with initial building. Nathan regularly provides tuition to the OZMinecraftEducators group of teachers Australia wide as Minecraft is used both in Australia and globally as a rich learning tool.

The design process the students are following:

  • design situation
  • design brief
  • investigating
  • thinking
  • choosing
  • making
  • evaluating

Firstly, students’ brainstormed the design situation as follows. Epic Citadel has experienced a population increase that can not be sustained. As a result there is a huge strain on resources such as food, clean water, heating, housing and land. The students’ then decided on this design brief: A new satellite city will be built to the west of Epic Citadel. It will be called Nova Citadel (Nova is Latin for new and Citadel is a fortress that protects a town). This town will meet the needs of a growing population sustainably.

Below is a video showing the process so far: Right click on the video after it starts playing to access video controls.

Mrs Booth

4 thoughts on “Epic Citadel/MinecraftEdu/BYOD English and Science Unit


  1. This is a great initiative for the kids to work on. Project management is such an important part of life in so many different ways, and they are incorporating so many skills into this work they are doing. How absolutely cool to science and technical tasks into something that you also have to complete with good grammar and punctuation, etc as well!
    Have been hearing about this work from Josh for weeks now, the kids think it’s fantastic.


  2. Wonderful to hear Suzy, I am glad Josh is enjoying the process. It is demanding but the students all appear to be enjoying themselves and rising to the challenge. It was great to design a unit of work in collaboration with Mrs Cavanagh as this ultimately makes it a much richer experience for the students.

    Mrs Booth


  3. This is such inspiring work. A very well thought out, authentic and engaging project.

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