SELSMINE gives players an opportunity to develop social-emotional learning (SEL) skills that not only improve academic performance, but also increase empathy, reduce depression and stress and are highly effective in addressing initiatives like anti-bullying, diversity and inclusion, and special education.

SEL emphasizes mastery of 5 core skills that prepare players for social success. These are:

1. Self-awareness,

2. Self-management,

3. Social awareness,

4. Relationship skills,

5. Responsible decision-making.

Each world is dedicated to and focused on one core SEL skills described above.

Map 1: Self-awareness The Player starts out in the schools and finds out they are late for a lesson. Once they get to the classroom, they learn about sadness. After the lesson, the Player meets another student that is having a hard time with their emotions and is in need of some help. After helping the student, the Player goes to their second lesson which is taking place in the gym. They need to build a bridge and finish 5 challenges that will test the Players agility and motor skills and let them find out their strengths. After this lesson, the Player goes to the cafeteria and learns about self-perception and awareness. Next, the Player gets to the Library to return a book. They get to learn about self-efficacy while helping the Librarian. Lastly, the Player goes to the Theater and after helping the students, they finish the game with a quiz all about self-awareness.

Map 2: Self-management The Player finds themselves at a camp where they meet friends and as their first challenge, help them decide if what they were planning on doing would hurt their friends feelings while learning about responsible decision-making. The second and third challenge lets the Player react to a situation where someone lost their wallet and those that found it are deciding what needs to be done to help the person who lost it. The fourth challenge is centred around a camp attendee not following safety rules on one of the camp tasks and others speaking up about it. The next challenge lets the Player guide their friends to listen to the leader responsible for safety on another camp task. For their last challenge on the map, the Player helps their friends choose bunks while taking into consideration everyone’s feelings. They get to notice how much better everyone around them became in making responsible decisions.

Map 3: Social awareness The Player finds themself at a school yet again and finds out that they will be completing a team project. A teacher tells the Player that they need to build the team and convince friends to join in. First, the Player needs to meet their friend and convince them to join the team. This requires the Player to see the strengths in their friend and explain how they will be a good fit with the team. Next, the Player meets a friend who is wary of the project’s aim and needs convincing by doing research on the topic in the local library. The next friend needs to be convinced that they will get along with other members of the team. The last friend needs to find out what are the benefits of working as a team rather than working alone. The Player is able to convince each of his friends while at the same time working on their own abilities!

Map 4: Relationship skills The Player becomes the Team Captain and finds himself located on a football field. They learn that there is a problem with the whole team not present at the practice that day. The Coach asks the Player to find out what is going on. The Player first finds out that some of the team members are stuck cleaning the locker room and helps them. Another member needs help with their homework, one is stuck with a pile of household chores to finish and the last one is sure they are not good enough to be part of the team. The Player has the option to either help each person or not to help them.

Map 5: Responsible decision-making After a quick tutorial, the Player finds themself at a shop and begins the first task. They will need to buy ingredients for a cake while having a limited budget. Their next tasks are to finish shopping in the allotted time, to get all of the needed items while going through an obstacle course, prove their ability to remain patient while figuring out what drives them to act well. In the last two tasks, the Player is able to choose the products they value more regardless of their price and lastly, test their new abilities and knowledge with a quiz.

The project aims to support teachers to more efficiently bridge gaps that emerged due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students suddenly transitioned to virtual means of learning and teachers were in need of practical approaches and tools that would allow them to continue to provide their students with engaging socio-emotional learning activities. This is why we created the SELSMINE Minecraft worlds.

Each map takes approximately 25 – 30 minutes to finish.