Casunatians in Minecraft competitions

In December of the year, many children and young people aged 7 to 18 were actively planning and building a variety of buildings, as the Minecraft competition participants were invited to celebrate the centuries of the Baltic States by rendering our cultural heritage in the virtual environment. The theme of the competition was “when the past met the future” and they were simultaneously held in all three Baltic States. At that time, the Minecraft environment had to build what the team considered an interesting and inspiring part of Latvian cultural heritage. The competition was part of the international #HourOofCode campaign, which takes place in December 2018, with more than 100 million young people worldwide. In total, more than 500 teams applied for Baltic competitions, of which 188 were from Latvia.
The evaluation criteria included both the concept of work that demonstrates the understanding of the cultural heritage of Latvia, the quality and technical complexity – how successful Minecraft's capabilities have been used, as well as originality – creativity and new ideas. The prizes were given in three age categories (7-11 years, 12-14 years and 15-18 years) and the main prize winner was selected among the participants in all Baltic States. There were also special awards, including the award for best video.
From Kaunatas High School, his team “Quick survivors” commented primary school students: Rinalds Paramonovs (class 2a), Emanuel Kablanov, and Artemis Rudanov (class 1a), who submitted a rating OF Mākoņkalna on the shore of Razna Lake and also the video. Their video won a special award as the best and most interesting video. This work encouraged the boys to better know the history of their country, and encouraged fantasy, as there was little evidence of THE appearance of THE Mākoņkalna palace, so that they had to look at other similar medieval castles, and also encouraged cooperation skills. By providing prizes from organizers, the Microsoft Innovation Centre employee, Zelma Martinson (on photo with the team representative Rinald Paramonova), expressed the pleasure and hope of meeting the world leaders of Minecraft in the future. She was very hospitalized with Microsoft's operating environment, showing both staff rooms and conference rooms.
High-level experts were evaluated by high-level experts - Dr Sc. Ing. Renata Strazdins, Microsoft Manager in Baltics, Linda Pavluta, Deputy Director of the Latvian National Sylenium Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, Sandra Ozolina, Deputy Director of the Centre for Cultural Information Systems, Sandis Colomensky, Chairman of the Board of Squalio, Lidija Terusina, Head of Business Development of Microsoft Latvia Education Sector, Andris Cishesh, co-founder of the programming school HelloIT co-founder and Oļegs Jonelis, head of the programming school HelloIT projects. On the other hand, Dr Oec gave his assessment of the work. Signe Ballina, President of the Latvian Information and Communication Technology Association, and May Obrumane, Head of Microsoft Student Partner Program in Latvia.
Inara Paramonova
Photo: Vladimir Likov and from personal archive