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MinecraftEdu Workshops at the CCC

3/4/2015

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Author: Connie Cann, CCC Development Associate and 1st-2nd Grade Group Leader
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Minecraft Sign designed and constructed by Akhi Mosley (4th grade).

If you have children, or internet access, you’ve probably heard of the popular open-world game Minecraft. On the surface, it looks like a digital game of Legos, with pixelated graphics and blocky monsters. However, the actual complexity and possibilities of Minecraft are astounding. To start, each new world in Minecraft is unique and vast, the maximum world size being around 9.3 million times the surface area of the Earth. It provides users a simple interface for exploration, creation, and survival.
MinecraftEdu is a version of Minecraft adapted by teachers and programmers to create compelling educational experiences. All around the globe Minecraft is being used in classrooms. Teachers everywhere, myself included, can access worlds built by other educators: worlds focusing on topics like environmental issues, city planning, and history. One map I’ve used in my workshops, the World of Humanities (WoH), was designed by a teacher in Kuwait to simulate exploration of ancient civilizations. Inspired by role-playing game World of Warcraft, students can collaborate in WoH to solve puzzles in Ancient Egypt, find their way to the top of Mount Everest, or explore the Roman Colosseum.
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At CCC, we use MinecraftEdu to educate youth through a platform they are already excited about. In each workshop, the kids have their own home world, where they can create new identities, selecting their own gender and appearance, and pick a new name, which other kids will use when chatting to each other within MinecraftEdu. Our youth live in homes of their own creation designed from the ground up, placing every block of wood and glass by hand. They befriend animals like horses and wolves, train them, and use them in their exploration of our worlds. They farm their own food, fish, hunt, explore, and protect their classmates.
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Kiyomi Starling (2nd Grade) and I fishing outside of our town.

Most recently, we have been using the versatile building tools in MinecraftEdu to create pixel art. Children find their images and recreate them using grids and coordinates. In this video, Rashard Mosley (3rd Grade) uses a grid to create a Minion.
Connie leads two MinecraftEdu workshops per week, one for first and second graders, and one for 3rd-8th graders.

More about MinecraftEdu:

http://minecraftedu.com/

The Wonderful World of Humanities:

http://services.minecraftedu.com/wiki/Wonderful_World_of_Humanities
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Transforming Hip Hop, Transforming Lives

6/4/2014

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Author: Darrin Korte, Director of Out-of-School Time Programs, The Hip Hop Transformation Program Director

From its inception, hip hop music and culture has represented the voice of a movement. The descendant of spirituals, jazz, blues, and rock, hip hop has evolved through constant innovation to become arguably the most passionate art form in our society today. While many people only think of rap music when they think of hip hop, hip hop culture takes the form of many different genres such as dance, graffiti, DJaying, and fashion. At its core, hip hop still carries this history and message of unity with it. However, due to many outside forces and influences, hip hop has developed an image as being hyper violent, misogynistic, and anti social leading many to believe that hip hop is a negative influence on the youth who consume it.

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April is Arts Month at Cambridge Winter Farmers Market!

4/2/2014

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Author: Kim Motylewski, Cambridge Winter Farmers Market manager

For folks who like local arts and crafts as much as locally grown food, April is the month the visit the Cambridge Winter Farmers Market (CWFM).  On three Saturdays – April 5th, 12th and 19th – CWFM will feature an Art Bazaar running alongside the farm market, in the Riverside Gallery space. On the final Saturday, April 26th, the Gallery will be one of the many, citywide Cambridge Arts-Open Studios sites. Open Studios activities at this site will continue on Sunday.

Having experimented in past years with including one or two art vendors in the farm market each week, managers Amelia Joselow and Kim Motylewski concluded that the arts needed a special focus all their own.  “We found that visitors to the farmers market had their minds mainly on dinner, not on decorating or accessorizing, or gifts,” says Motylewski. “With this excellent collection of creative work, we expect to attract shoppers who are interested in a wide range of media and expression, people equally interested in art and food, the studio and the kitchen.”

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A Reflection by the Founder/Director of The Hip Hop Transformation

2/25/2014

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Author: Darrin Korte, Director of Out-of-School Time Programs, The Hip Hop Transformation Program Director

Last year I was lucky enough to be awarded a grant to run the program of my dreams at the Cambridge Community Center. It was a program that would combine my three biggest passions – social justice, youth work, and hip hop culture. The program was designed to teach teens in the Cambridge area about the history of hip hop culture and the role that it plays in their lives. Then we would teach them the art of hip hop music – how to write, record, and perform their own original music. 

Through this process we would develop conscious consumers who better understood the messages in the music they were listening to. We would develop teens that were comfortable exploring their talents and showcasing them in front of their community. We would combat the negative images often associated with hip hop music with the positive spirit that hip hop grew from. We would demystify the art of lyric writing and make this form of expression accessible to all of the program participants. We would connect them to positive role models in the local hip hop community. Through knowledge and experience we would inspire a transformation in the teens. The Hip Hop Transformation was born.

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  • About
    • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Friends of CCC
    • Our Blog
    • 2022 Impact Report
  • Programs
    • School-Age Programs (K-8) >
      • After School
      • Cowemoki Summer Enrichment Program
      • Enrollment
    • Teen Programs
    • Community Programs
  • Rent Space
  • Contact
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