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Democracy in Minecraft
For Teachers & DIY

For Teachers & DIY

Materials and concepts for civic education with Minecraft in the classroom.

Here you’ll find all the information and materials to run a future workshop at your school — whether as a full-day project day or an overnight event.

Guides to download

The downloadable guides below are in German.
Guide: Digital Future Days
Current 2025/26 version — project day format (8am–4pm), four-part concept with classroom lesson and discussion event
Guide: Digital Future Nights
2023/24 version — overnight format (4pm to next morning), with checklist, packing list, and expense reimbursement

The two formats at a glance

Digital Future Days (current, since 2025/26)

The newer day format runs from 8 am to 4 pm and is structured as a four-part concept:

  1. Digital Future Day at the school — an input phase on local politics, then a creative phase in Minetest
  2. Classroom lesson — deepening the topics of political levels and participation (materials from the BLZ)
  3. Extracurricular meeting — students from different schools in a municipality work together with the Bavarian Youth Council to develop their project ideas further
  4. Discussion event — presentation to representatives of local politics
A collaboration between the Bavarian State Centre for Civic Education, the participation unit of the Bavarian Youth Council, KidsLab, and Q3 – Quartier für Medien.Bildung.Abenteuer.

Digital Future Nights (original format, 2022–2024)

The overnight format runs from 4 pm to 10 am the next morning. Students stay overnight at the school and work on their Minetest projects all night. This format was launched during the “Bavarian Year of Youth 2022” and ran at over 27 schools across every Bavarian school inspectorate district.

Schedule of a Digital Future Day

TimeContent
8:00–8:10 amWelcome, introductions, warm-up
8:10–8:40 amShort workshop: how does local politics work?
8:40–9:10 amFuture workshop: my municipality today and tomorrow
9:10–9:20 amIntroduction to Minetest
9:20–9:55 amFirst part of the creative phase
9:55–10:10 amBreak
10:10–11:55 amCreative phase in Minetest with feedback rounds
11:55 am–1:00 pmLunch break
1:00–3:15 pmIndependent work in Minetest
3:15–3:45 pmPresentation of results
3:45–4:00 pmEvaluation and outlook

What makes this project special?

  • Experiencing local politics first-hand — enabling a real sense of self-efficacy
  • Breaking down barriers between politics and school
  • Statewide in Bavaria — including especially in rural areas
  • Strong connection to everyday life — the students’ own municipality takes centre stage
  • Methodological innovation — civic education meets media education

Tasks for the school

The complete checklist with all details can be found in the guides above.
  • Register it as a school event
  • Provide laptops and mice (one device per student)
  • Install Minetest on all laptops (free, minetest.net)
  • Provide Wi-Fi login details
  • Inform parents/guardians
  • Obtain photo consent forms (template in the guide)
  • Organise catering (rule of thumb: €15–20 per person, costs reimbursed by the BLZ)
  • Publicity for the project (press release template in the Future Days guide)

Results: what has happened so far?

Many ideas from the future workshops have already become reality:

  • Students from Schweinfurt took over their town’s Instagram channel
  • Teenagers from Regenstauf successfully campaigned for their own youth parliament
  • In Wurmannsquick, a bouldering wall was built on the school grounds

All projects and future contracts are documented at zukunftsnacht.de.

Contact and more info

Bavarian State Centre for Civic Education

KidsLab gGmbH (delivery)

Q3 – Quartier für Medien.Bildung.Abenteuer (delivery)