Calgary,
03
March
2022
|
10:07
America/Denver

Winners of the inaugural Level Up, Calgary! Awards announced

Brick by brick, students across Calgary have redesigned, restructured and rebuilt the city’s downtown in the pixelated world of Minecraft. The City, in partnership with the Calgary Board of Education (CBE), the Calgary Public Library, and Microsoft Canada, is proud to announce the inaugural winners of the Level Up, Calgary! challenge.

In the first Minecraft: Education Edition design challenge in Canada, more than 12,000 CBE students from all grade levels explored, created and prototyped designs in the pixelated world of Minecraft. Every student demonstrated creativity, collaboration and problem-solving throughout this challenge to make Calgary’s downtown a better place for all Calgarians.

“Our downtown belongs to all Calgarians and it’s amazing to see the Minecraft creations that over 12,000 of Calgary’s students put together as they imagined the future of the heart of our city,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek. “A thriving downtown needs to not only be a centre of business, but also somewhere that people want to live and build a community and the students involved in this challenge have taken that to heart.”

The CBE narrowed the selection list down to 12 finalists across four divisions (Kindergarten-Grade 3, Grade 4-6, Grade 7-9, Grade 10-12). Judges from The City, CBE, Calgary Arts Development, Tourism Calgary, Arts Commons, the Calgary Public Library, Microsoft Canada, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), the University of Calgary, and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) selected one winner for each division.

The winners of the inaugural Level Up, Calgary! Awards include:

Division 1 (K-3)

Dr. E.W. Coffin School

Franco A., Kaylee C., Sammy G., Marek G., Yuna J., Rane M., Helia T., Max P., Morgan R., Taylor T., Finn V., Landon W., Joel W., Porter W., Alex Z., Graham C., Candice C., Kipling H., Rory H., Abigail K., Pierce L., Ansif R., and Max W.

Division 2 (Grades 4-6)

Captain John Palliser School

Poppy P.

Division 3 (Grades 7-9)

Dr. Gordon Higgins School

Areeb K., Nihchal (Nick) P., Ender S., and Jashanjot S.

Division 4 (Grades 10-12)

Centennial High School

Tyson L., Ethan M., Andy X.​

Level Up, Calgary! challenged CBE Students from all grade levels to visit downtown Calgary landmarks, like the Central Library and Olympic Plaza, while interacting with characters from the Indigenous community and experts from The City, with the challenge being “How might we reimagine our public spaces to enrich the lives of Calgarians and strengthen our community?” To learn more, please visit calgary.ca/levelup

The Level Up, Calgary challenge is an initiative of The City’s Downtown Strategy, an effort to bring together downtown’s partners and tackle the issues and opportunities that downtown Calgary is facing and begin the roadmap to downtown’s reinvention. This partnership with the CBE is a collaboration to bring a new viewpoint on Calgary’s downtown to the table. To learn more about the Downtown Strategy, please visit calgary.ca/downtown.