The Environment Agency has launched the latest in its much-loved Minecraft Rivercraft games series.
Rivercraft is a suite of games developed by the Environment Agency, Microsoft and Blockbuilders to engage 11-14 year old young people on flood risk reduction, climate change and biodiversity. First released in April 2022 on the Minecraft Education Edition, the next games “Rivercraft 2” are released in April 2023.
The Environment Agency has developed the “Rivercraft 2” suite of games for the Minecraft Education Platform, for use in schools, clubs and other youth organisations. The games are aimed at age 12-14 (Key Stage 3 of the National Curriculum) and provide an insight for young people of the work of the Environment Agency including reducing flood risk, reducing the impacts of climate change and improving biodiversity.
The games provide an innovative and exciting Geography resource for students and teachers, allowing the unique visualisation of many of the environmental challenges that we face in the UK today, and allowing students to develop their learning and understanding of these challenges as well as how we can be more resilient to them.
As of January 2023, the existing Rivercraft games have been played in over 2700 sessions in the UK (one session can be a whole classroom using the same school Minecraft Education licence). Using a conservative estimate of 10 users in each session, this means that the games have been used by around 27,000 young people and teachers in the UK. Once the Rivercraft 2 games are released in April 2023, the team aim to at least double this impact in the UK.
The Minecraft Education Platform is available worldwide, and the total number of sessions globally was 47000 sessions as of January 2023. The UK is currently the third highest user of the games (the highest being USA and Australia).
The benefits of the Rivercraft 2 project include:
- A new Environment Agency digital product for young people to better communicate the risks of flooding;
- A new digital tool to promote behavioural change on flood preparedness and the climate emergency;
- Providing digital educational resources to support the Department for Education’s Climate & Sustainability Strategy and virtual Nature Park;
- Demonstrating an innovative and pioneering engagement approach that can be utilised across the Environment Agency and Defra group in the future;
- Ability to reach diverse groups of young people though an educational gaming platform;
- Ability to engage with large numbers of young people over an extended period of time (games remain on platform for 3-5 years);
- Provides a tool to promote the work of the Environment Agency to young people and highlight many different Geography and STEM careers available.
More information including the download link for eligible users is available here.