The Quezon City local government encouraged on Monday, May 1, students in public and private schools in the city to design climate solutions through its "Minecraft Education Challenge." The QC Minecraft Education Challenge was initiated by the QC Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Department (CCESD) as part of the Schools Reinventing Cities program, which is a collaboration between C40’s Reinventing Cities and Minecraft Education. The program gives schools and students an opportunity to design climate solutions and to present their ideas to city leaders through Minecraft Education, a game-based learning platform. "Through this challenge, we hope to empower our youth by mining their valuable ideas for the development of our city. We will continue to foster our student's creativity and critical thinking and engage them in our environmental efforts as we head towards our vision of building a liveable, sustainable, and climate-resilient city," QC Mayor Joy Belmonte said. “We can’t create a green future without the ideas and leadership of young people. Schools Reinventing Cities offers a unique, engaging opportunity for young people around the world to learn about science-based city climate actions. Sharing their best and boldest ideas with their teachers, schoolmates and policy makers, students can help reinvent their city," Mark Watts, executive director of C40 Cities, said. "C40 Cities is thrilled to work with Minecraft Education and Mayor Belmonte to bring the competition to Quezon City. I’m really looking forward to seeing students’ ideas to increase urban biodiversity, promote sustainable mobility and improve public health," he added. According to Allison Matthews, head of Minecraft Education, the program will empower students' creativity and passion to invent sustainable solutions for a more eco-friendly environment. "The remarkable creativity and passion for sustainability will undoubtedly inspire leaders and pave the way for students to innovate, create, and contribute to a brighter Quezon City. We can't wait to see the innovative solutions they will come up with," she said. Selected teams will be tasked to design and build realistic climate actions for Quezon City such as expanding green spaces and the green corridor network; enhancing sustainable mobility; and improving air quality. "The students will have the opportunity to build solutions that will transform and enhance urban biodiversity, promote sustainable mobility, and improve public health on any of the following roads: White Plains Avenue, Agham Road, and Belfast Avenue," the city government said. QC private and public schools that are interested to join the challenge may start forming a team of three to six members within the same grade level categories including Grades 4 to 6, Junior High and Senior High Schools, and a teacher who will serve as the School Minecraft Education moderator. The winners of each category will receive prizes. Overall Team Champion from each classification will receive P30,000; Team Champion Moderator will get P15,000; and Team Champion School, P15,000. Winners of the QC Minecraft Challenge will be announced during the QC Hall flag raising ceremony in July 3. All necessary documents and resources can be found at [https://qc-c40-minecraftchallenge.quezoncity.gov.ph/](https://qc-c40-minecraftchallenge.quezoncity.gov.ph/). The registration runs until May 29, 2023, the QC government added.