Building Siena on Minecraft: this is what over 150 students from the Saffi and San Bernardino schools did who, thanks to the Siena Virtual Game project, promoted by the Mps Foundation and Vernice Progetti Culturali, were able to create with the cubes of the famous online game, all points nerve centers of the city of the Palio. A long and delicate job, in which the students were accompanied by professional RoboCode technicians.
“The Foundation has always followed the training path of young people – comments the president of Fmps Carlo Rossi -. We follow elementary school children with the School Food project, up to graduates with Ikigai. This project, however, is a first experiment, in which students can learn new things through video games. Very often, we adults tend to keep our children or grandchildren distant from technologies, but in this case they are real tools for enriching their cultural background”.
“The work done with our professionals and the kids lasted a very long time – explains Gloria Zanichelli of RoboCode -. In fact, it took us almost six months to create the Minecraft world, with all the most important buildings in Siena, and it was a very beautiful journey. Furthermore, the kids participated with great enthusiasm, because it was something new for them.”
The “Siena Virtual Game” is a project conceived as an innovative teaching tool, designed to support teaching of the city’s history in schools. In fact, before building the world on Minecraft, the boys were taken to the main places of Siena, guided by Laura Bonelli.
“I decided to keep a very specific line, namely the medieval one – comments Laura Bonelli of Vernici Progetti Culturali -. In fact, the students represented the city in that historical period, reconstructing the most important buildings: we pass through Piazza del Campo, the Duomo, Provenzano, Palazzo Sansedoni, Palazzo Pubblico and much more. Before arriving at this, we went around the points just mentioned with the classes, telling them anecdotes and stories, which made the lessons more pleasant and interesting.”
