Minecraft:Hour of Code: AI for Good

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Hour of Code: AI for Good, also known as Hour of Code 2019: AI for Good, is a lesson in Minecraft:Minecraft Education and part of the Hour of Code series. The first half of the lesson is set in a fire research center where players learn about fire hazards, and the second half is set in a Minecraft:village affected by forest fire. The lesson is intended to teach players the principles of artificial intelligence training, as well as identifying fire hazards before forest fires.

Summary

Fire research center

Open the gate

The player spawns at the parking lot of the center which, beyond the Minecraft:iron bars, is surrounded by a dense forest of various trees (mostly Minecraft:jungle trees) and dry Minecraft:grass and Minecraft:ferns. At the doorway is the researcher with a helper bot beside them. The researcher introduces the player to the center and asks them to open the iron bar gate using code. After opening, the researcher and their bot soon despawn and the gate is raised.

Meet your agent

At the front of another gate, an engineer with their bot introduces the player to the Minecraft:agent, who sits on a chair-like structure. To get it to meet the player, they have to make it walk three blocks forward, after which all three mobs despawn and the gate gets raised

Agent analyze

Beyond the gate is a researcher dressed as a firefighter beside their bot and an agent. Five blocks from the agent is dry brush which it needs to analyze. To do so, the player must make it walk to the brush and then analyze it. After completing the quest, the mobs despawn and the gate gets raised, leading to a brick tower with Minecraft:ladders.

Gather data

Up the tower, the player can find the technician, who offers them to choose between a long or short path in the maze below the tower. The agent spawns at the start of the chosen path, requiring code to move then analyze the dry brush at the end.

Eliminate all hazards

After finishing the quest, the player must meet the head of research in the main building. To access it, they must go down a ladder and solve one of the two mazes of the previous quest. The head of research explains how teaching the agent fire hazards can help the firefighting team predict wildfires, before telling them to ask the AI specialist inside the building. The specialist shows the tutorial of the quest: if the screen of the monitor shows dry plants, it is a fire hazard and green plants are not. To answer, the player has to press the YES button for fire hazards and NO for safer plants. As the agent watches a screen showing a copy of the images shown on the monitor, the player must answer four times to end the game. After finishing, the scientist in the hall explains the mechanics of the quest: using code, the agent behind the wall must destroy plants appearing in front of it only if they are fire hazards, otherwise leaving them be.

Alert the team

Upon completing the quest, the analyst farther in the hallway explains how the agent can be trained to alert the team of potential fire hazards. To do so, the player has to make the agent alert the team if it detects a fire hazard on the monitor screen. Outside the center, the player can find the fire captain inside the helicopter, who is fascinated by the agent's ability to predict fires, before flying them to a Minecraft:savanna where a storm brews.

Wildfire village

Save the village!

Having noticed the coming storm, the captain worries that the lightning would cause a fire in the nearby village. In this case, the agent must move through a line of plants on the Minecraft:dirt, removing any dry brush along the way. After completing, the storm arrives and a dark line extending indefinitely replaces the plants. Bolts of lightning strike the cliffside, starting a fire which cannot spread beyond the line.

Reforestation process

After the storm settles, the helicopter lands on the ground, where the fire left behind dense dry brush, burned brown blocks, and leafless trees. The firefighter congratulates the player in having saved the village during the storm, and suggests helping restore the village. As an open-ended activity, the code blocks can be used freely to replace blocks with others and spawn mobs wherever the player goes.

Trivia

• The lesson is the only Hour of Code to only include MakeCode blocks as a coding language.