Kiwi kids bring Anzac history to life In Minecraft

Kiwi kids bring Anzac history to life In Minecraft

Auckland War Memorial Museum has teamed up with Media Design School and their ‘Pick & Shovel’ community to recreate ANZAC history in Minecraft®.

Selling over 35 million copies worldwide, Minecraft® is an award-winning game that encourages creativity and adventure, it allows users to break and place blocks, working together to create a virtual world. The Museum identified the potential of the game as a tool to help younger generations learn about World War One and will collaborate with ‘Pick & Shovel’ - the popular Minecraft® community developed by Media Design School – to recreate the landscape of 1915 Gallipoli.

The respectful and historically referenced recreated landscape will be launched in time for Anzac Day 2014 and will continue to develop throughout the upcoming centenary period building towards completion around Anzac Day commemorations in 2015.

The project will begin with a weekend build in the Armoury at the Museum on the 12th and 13th April. 15 hand-picked “elite builders” aged 13-17 years of age will establish ‘the world’ and begin building key landing areas from ANZAC Cove through to Razor’s Edge including boats, large artillery, dugouts and trenches.

After the initial build weekend, ‘the world’ will be exported onto a public server, where challenges will be revealed throughout the year focusing on different items or locations that were important to ANZAC campaigns. This will allow for people around the world to explore and contribute to the build.

An education version will also be developed for use in classrooms around New Zealand, with resources and support provided by the Museum.

“Minecraft® is a wonderful way to engage students with a period of history which they may feel removed from.” says Museum School Programmer Wendy Burne, “Photographs from our collections taken almost one hundred years ago will provide opportunities to understand what Gallipoli was like first-hand and aid in building the world.”

“The opportunity to introduce Minecraft® into classrooms as an interactive learning tool is very exciting. Better still, it will be created by students, for students,” says Media Design School CEO Darryn Melrose. “We are looking forward to watching the old blend with the new to create an engaging virtual experience for the classroom.”

Discover the ‘WWI: Gallipoli in Minecraft’ project at:http://www.pickandshovel.net/ww1

ENDS

ABOUT AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Auckland Museum is regarded as one of the finest Museums in the Southern Hemisphere and is renowned for its unique collection of Māori and Pacific treasures. It is also a war memorial for the Auckland province. Housed in one of the country's finest heritage buildings, the Museum tells the story of New Zealand as a nation; from award-winning natural history exhibits to galleries which investigate New Zealand's cultural origins. Scars on the Heart, the Museum's war memorial exhibition, tells the story of New Zealand at war, while He Taonga Māori - the Museum's Māori treasures gallery, displays over 2,000 priceless Māori artefacts, including rare carvings and the last great Māori war canoe carved from a giant Totara tree.

For more information please visit: www.aucklandmuseum.com

ABOUT MEDIA DESIGN SCHOOL
Media Design School in Auckland, New Zealand is internationally acclaimed for its specialized qualifications for emerging creative industries including 3D animation and visual effects; game art and game programming; interactive online and media design. It is also home to the award-winning AdSchool for creative advertising, voted No.4 most creative school in the world by Young Guns. Media Design School is distinguished by its high-profile industry collaborations, immersive learning environment and award-winning student work. Part of the Laureate University Network, the world’s largest group of private tertiary providers, Media Design School provides access to international education opportunities.

For more information please visit: www.mediadesignschool.com

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