ComputerCraft Hour of Code

Our first programming experience in Minecraft is the ComputerCraft Hour of Code activity.  Skip the board game activity at the start.

You will go through six programming tasks to get through and exit a short obstacle course.  All of the tasks are completed by your robot turtle, using your turtle remote control to direct and program the turtle to move, mine, and place blocks.

There is a YouTube video to introduce each task.  Watch the video, do the task, and repeat until done.  I suggest you do not run Minecraft in full-screen mode when doing this, just to make it easier to switch back and forth between YouTube and Minecraft.  F11 toggles fullscreen on/off.  The speaker in the videos has a bit of an accent:  you will need to listen carefully to what he says, and it may help to click the “cc” button on the YouTube video to display captions.

Aside from the content in the videos, here are the things you need to know to succeed at this activity:

  1. Right-click is Control-click:  hold the Ctrl key down before clicking to use something or place a block or turtle.
  2. Your inventory slots are accessed by their number, 1 – 9.  The remote is a special slot to the right, number 0.
  3. Press 0 to reconnect with your turtle.
  4. This is a world with numbered lanes or areas for each individual student.  Choose the number that matches your assigned computer number.

When done, you can get a Lua Computer for use in Minecraft and start learning about it.  Or make a program to mine materials and build a structure using your robot turtle.

The Robot Turtle tips at the bottom of the linked page are also useful.