Reading code with Minecraft

Reading code can be neglected in Computing education, as teachers and students are eager to begin creative work! However, time spend reading code before programming is important. We explore how Minecraft (Education Edition) offers great opportunities for children to read code and observe its effects, prior to creating their own programs.

The importance of reading code

Dr Sue Sentance, Chief Learning Officer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation and a Fellow at Kings College London, used the term 'PRIMM' as a method for effective teaching of programming. PRIMM stands for 'predict', 'run', 'investigate', 'modify', 'make'. This process highlights the importance of steps prior to children creating their own programs, stating that they should have the opportunity to examine, discuss and explore code before being asked to create their own.

In subjects like English, we are very good at giving children time to read, discuss and explore text, before asking them to create their own work. Reading is a discrete and valued aspect of English; by the time children are expected to produce their own fictional or non-fictional writing, they are expected to have a wealth of ideas, themes, vocabulary and expressions for which to draw upon.

Is the same true of other subjects? Do we give children enough time to read work in Science, Maths and Humanities, before asking them to create their own work? Do we allow children enough time to view examples of sports activities before asking them to perform in sports activities and games?

In Computing, the 'PRIMM' method offers a subject-specific process for introducing code to children. In practice, I have found that any time spend reading code with children prior to asking them to produce their own code pays dividends. Sometimes this will involve all of the steps of the PRIMM process. Sometimes, we might spend a whole lesson on the 'predicting' and 'running' stages, with plenty of time for group discussion about code before predictions are made.

Using Minecraft Education Edition

Minecraft Education Edition is a version of Minecraft, developed specifically for use in schools or educational institutions.

Minecraft Education have also published instructions for using Minecraft Education Edition at home:

https://edusupport.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/4415061129236-Purchasing-Minecraft-Education-for-Homeschooling-Family-use

Once inside Minecraft Education Edition, users can create a 'creative' world, which allows the player to press 'c' and open the coding window. This also summons the 'agent', a robot that can be programmed to perform tasks for the player.

Once 'c' is pressed, some useful tutorials appear. These teach the basics of programming the agent. They offer clear, step by step guides that children can follow independently. Children can even press the 'lightbulb' icon within any tutorial to see examples of the code.

To run their code, children press 't' to open the chat window, type their command and press 'enter'.

Children will enjoy working through the tutorials and will usually achieve success in reaching the creative goals for each lesson. However, they will learn much more deeply if they are given to opportunity to think about, discuss and make predictions about the code in the tutorials.

Suggested activities for reading code in Minecraft

All the tutorial activities in Minecraft Education offer opportunities for reading and making predictions about code, if the teacher facilitates this.

Instead of children working through the tutorials at their own pace, the teacher could present them with examples of the final code, or variations on the final code to discuss.

To give children context, the teacher could also provide children with an image or video of the final required outcome. In this example, this is the agent having planted seeds into tilled soil in a rectangular shape of a specified size.

This outline of the challenge will lead to some useful programming ideas, including different types of commands and use of repetition. The teacher could then present the children with examples of code for them to discuss. They could be presented with one correct piece of code and one incorrect piece of code. (The image below is correct, a variation could be provided which is incorrect.) Children could be given time in pairs or groups to discuss the differences between the code and why one is correct/incorrect.

Alternatively, 'Parsons Puzzles' can be used, where children are presented with code that has been jumbled up. This can be achieved digitally, using a shared document in Canva, or by cutting out pieces of code!

Spending time discussing, exploring and thinking about code in this way will give children a far deeper understanding of the code for when they come to make their own programs in Minecraft. By the time children run this program, they will be confident with how it works and will be able to modify it to make their farms bigger, smaller or include different crops. They might choose to add water channels or even a greenhouse.

Concluding thoughts

Giving children opportunities to read code does not need to involve huge amounts of preparation by the teacher. Simply providing children with printed versions of the code to read, discuss and annotate will benefit children of all ages, whether they are working with Bluebots, Scratch Juinor, Scratch, Lego Spike Prime or Minecraft Education.

Time spent reading code can seem like less time available for creativity through programming. However, the opposite is true. By exploring code fully before creating their own programs, children become familiar and fluent with the elements and structure of programs, just as they become familiar with the English language through reading books.