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Claire Cheng walked into the IDEAS Xchange space Tuesday with a Rubik’s Cube in hand.

The sixth-grade student at Providence Day solved that puzzle within minutes and moved on to construct a portion of the campus parking deck in Minecraft. Claire loves challenges - it’s why she joined the Middle School Gaming Club.

“You get to play with your friends,” she says. “And you can freely build in a game. I really like doing different things in Minecraft. I’ve already built a couple of houses and a farm.” 

The Middle School Gaming Club is building the entire Providence Day campus to scale in Minecraft, a game made up of blocks, creatures, and communities. It’s called a “sandbox game” because players can play however they like. It teaches the basics of coding through block-based programming.  

Providence Day club members began building the campus in December and started with the parking deck of the DeMayo Gateway Center. 

“It’s a multiyear project that we just barely started,” says Wes Fryer, who co-advises the club with Weston Strickland. “But it’s gotten the kids excited. Minecraft is possibly the most engaging environment I have ever seen for students.”

Thomas Braxtan and Bennett Stevens, both sixth-grade students, also spent part of their lunch break this week working on the Gaming Club’s Minecraft project. 

“It’s fun,” Thomas says. “We play games on our iPads and board games. The Minecraft project is very difficult and very large. The satisfying part will be seeing it all built.”

Bennett agrees. 

“It’s fun to do this with other people,” Bennett says. “It’s actually pretty cool and interesting to see the school in a Minecraft game.”

Dr. Fryer, a Middle School STEM and literacy teacher who is in his second year at Providence Day, says building the entire campus to scale in Minecraft may include help from some of the middle school students in his computer programming class. 

“It’s definitely an exciting project with multiple skill connections to map coordinates, mathematical scale, mimicking real building materials with Minecraft blocks, design, team, collaboration, etc.,” Dr. Fryer says. “I’m blown away by what some students have done on their own. [They’ve] built New York City, [Harry Potter’s] Hogwarts. There are so many incredible possibilities. You’re telling students they have an unlimited supply of LEGO blocks; now what are you going to build?”

“Unleash your gaming skills.”

Indeera Sen, a sixth-grader, joined the Middle School Gaming Club because of Dr. Fryer’s inspiration. 

“He instilled a love of coding (and Minecraft) in me when I took his computer programming class in the fall semester,” Indeera says. “I want to build [Providence Day] in Minecraft because I thought it would be cool to see the accurate and beautiful buildings rise from the bare ground of a grassy Minecraft world. 

“I also take this as a chance to work on my building and coding skills.”

Indeera is one of about 41 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students who are members of the Gaming Club, a place where students come together in person and through a game. Members discover new games and share each other’s passions for gaming - digital or non-digital.

A pair of middle school students designed the club’s website in spring 2023. Club members also play chess, Jenga, and Uno.

Indeera is working on building the Demayo Gateway Center and parking lot in Minecraft.

“Some challenges of building [Providence Day] in Minecraft are making everything to scale,” Indeera says, “and we [have] to build everything by hand.”

Adds Dr. Fryer: “These kids have a high level of motivation. There’s a lot of creativity and invention when it comes to them building something that is physical and real.”

collage of Minecraft gaming club students and close-up of laptop screen