Old Balara Elementary School won the Quezon City C40 Minecraft Challenge for the Grade School category, with their environment-friendly electric vehicles, solar-powered streetlights, advanced medical tools in hospitals, and recreational areas that promote sustainability and community well-being along Belfast Avenue in Fairview, Quezon City.

The Minecraft Challenge is a collaboration between C40 Cities, Minecraft Education, and the Quezon City local government, through its Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Department (CCESD), for K-12 public and private school students, who were asked to design climate solutions for their city using Minecraft Education.

“Young learners deserve to have a platform that allows them to bring their most innovative ideas to life,” said Clarissa Segismundo, a panelist and the Regional Industry adviser for Education for Microsoft. “By sharing the Minecraft Education platform with the Quezon City youth, we are able to promote creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive digital environment.”

Microsoft, DepEd launch ‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ on mobile
Microsoft designed education solutions to help create holistic learning environment

Other winners

In the Junior High School Category, Ateneo de Manila Junior High students emerged as the Overall Champions. They showcased innovative designs for low-cost sustainable housing, enhanced transportation terminals, and efficient lighting and rainwater separation systems along Agham Road, Quezon City.

The Overall Champions in the Senior High School Category are the students from San Francisco High School who developed urban diversity solutions, smart traffic management, and smart drainage systems within Agham Road, Quezon City. 

Special recognitions were also given to teams with the Most Impactful Proposal, Most Innovative Build, and Best Pitch.

C40 Cities is a global network of nearly 100 mayors united in action to confront the climate crisis. The Quezon City C40 Minecraft Challenge builds on C40 Cities’ Reinventing Cities initiative to stimulate sustainable development, and Minecraft Education’s platform, aiming to empower students to create a more sustainable future for Quezon City. 

Minecraft Education

Minecraft Education is a game-based learning platform being implemented in the Philippines by the Department of Education, private schools and Microsoft Philippines. Minecraft Education aims to implement game-based learning and inspire more creativity and inclusive learning through play in classrooms. For the competition, public and private schools throughout Quezon City used the platform, giving participating students a customized virtual representation of the city to navigate and build in. This virtual QC even had in-game versions of city leaders and experts whom students could interact with during the competition. 

The competition was open to all students In Quezon City, featuring three categories: Grade School, Junior High School and Senior High School. Participating students were given the task of reinventing the city with innovative solutions specific to a prominent road in Quezon City such as Agham Road, White Plains and Belfast Avenue. The goal was to build urban biodiversity, promote sustainable mobility, and improve public health in their selected area.

Each team was required to submit a short video and write-up describing their builds and how they addressed the challenges they were presented with. Fifteen finalists were selected out of 36 entries, who then pitched their sustainable solutions to a panel of judges.