Author: Connie Cann, CCC Development Associate and 1st-2nd Grade Group Leader

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.

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.

Author: Amelia Joselow, CCC Director of Outreach, Green Program gardening teacher

Fingers crossed, it really is spring out there. No sudden frosts and snow, no more scraping ice off the car windshield. With warmer weather comes the possibility of more outdoor time, but for some it is hard to come out of that couch/computer/TV hibernation. And sadly, the gravitational pull of the couch doesn’t change just because the weather does. It can be hard to get out and get active even if we know it is good for us. But what if it wasn’t just good for us? What if we really needed it?

Author: Sarah Saydun, Development Associate

Did you know that Cambridge Community Center’s doors opened 85 years ago? CCC was founded in the Tarbell School (which is still our main building) by a group of black ministers who were concerned about the health and welfare of the children in the Riverside neighborhood of Cambridge.  The Center established the first nursery school in the area and offered a wide range of services through the years, including job training for women entering the manufacturing workforce during World War II. 

Author: Amelia Joselow, Director of Marketing and Outreach, Green Program Director, Cambridge Winter Farmers Market co-manager

Update!: Cambridge Winter Farmers Market now offers $15 SNAP matching (raised from $10), meaning SNAP users can exchange $15 SNAP for $30 in market tokens! More here!

Did you know that over 700,000 children and adults, more than one out of ten households, in Massachusetts deal with hunger on a daily basis? Did you also know that hunger and obesity are intricately tied? This is because families with lower incomes often make food choices based on "calories per dollar" in order to stretch their food budget and feed their families. Unfortunately, highly processed, high fat, high sugar, high sodium foods tend to be the cheapest, and therefore the most widely consumed by families who are fighting hunger. 

Author: Sarah Saydun, Cambridge Community Center Development Associate

In a recent interview on NPR, Dr. Daniel Siegel, a psychiatrist and Center for Culture, Brain, and Development at UCLA, stated that adolescent struggles are more than just raging hormones, they stem from a remodeling of the brain that makes them completely change. It made me reflect on what it was like to be that age – overwhelmed with stress from school, my family, my peers, and struggling to navigate all of the changes going on within myself.  My mom used to tell me “don’t worry, high school won’t last forever”, half kidding, but fully empathizing, remembering her adolescent experience and the struggles she went through as an awkward teen trying to fit in.