In an Australian first, Monash University and VicHealth have teamed up to develop “Kids Building Future Healthy”, a Minecraft Education Edition, that calls on healthy heroes aged 9 to 12 to design communities where people are more connected, active and enjoy wholesome food.The ‘Kids Building Future Healthy’ mission will launch on 10 July, ahead of Term 3. Block by block, students will take the reins as community health researchers and neighbourhood designers. Within the Future Healthy World in Minecraft, students will gather intel on different ways to solve health issues within their communities. To complete the mission, kids will design and build their ideal Future Healthy World.Deana Leahy, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, says the Minecraft mission explores the social and physical factors that can make an environment conducive to positive health outcomes. “Kids Building Future Healthy is a project that evolved out of the need to provide an opportunity for primary school age kids to engage with learning about health,” Associate Professor Leahy commented “In order to develop better solutions to the challenges we’re facing, we need to open up the conversation and hear from kids. They provide a different perspective and can play a key role in designing a healthier Victoria. This project asks kids to do local research and use that data to feed into their plans for building healthier communities.”
Associate Professor Leahy said that youth-led ideas and solutions to health challenges are so important because the students of today will be the adults of tomorrow. Some schools and teachers have already welcomed the program as a useful resource in their classrooms as it sparks creativity and teamwork.
VicHealth CEO Dr Sandro Demaio said the mission combines physical and digital worlds to promote good health among the next generation.
“We’re all about finding new and innovative ways to engage kids with fun and good health. Kids Building Future Healthy is a creative project that inspires kids to learn about health by giving them a voice in what a healthy future could look like.” Dr Demaio commented “Throughout the mission, students will design and build their Future Healthy World – where people are connected, active, and enjoy wholesome foods. As tomorrow’s leaders, no one is better placed than young Victorians to tell us what this future should look like.”
Dr Demaio said that the most innovative student builds will be displayed on the VicHealth website so that the community and key decision makers can consider them as prototypes for creating a future that’s healthier, fairer, better. The top three builds will also receive an exclusive opportunity to present their ideas to their local government leaders.
More about the ‘Kids Building Future Healthy’ mission. This mission is part of VicHealth’s Future Healthy initiative – a $45 million investment over three years helping Victoria’s young people aged 0 – 25 and their families to build back better and fairer.
