‘Team Inglish’ Levels Up

Five-Member Paul Revere Team Reaches Finals in LAUSD Level Up Los Angeles Esports Competition with Minecraft Education

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Five Paul Revere Charter Middle School and Magnet Center students were able to combine several of their passions, teaming up to create solutions to combat climate change during the Los Angeles Unified School District Level Up Los Angeles Esports Competition with Minecraft Education.

Theodore Mihalev, Doran Emanuel, Finnegan Roughton, David Hernandez and Lucas Kaplan were the five team members that made up “Team Inglish,” which competed in a two-part competition—reaching the finals on Thursday, March 21.

“In partnership with Microsoft, LAUSD has launched a two-level esports competition with Minecraft Education during the fall/winter of 2023,” read a competition synopsis on the LAUSD website. “Embark on an epic adventure, and get ready to collaborate, compete and reshape the future of Los Angeles to help our city thrive in the midst of climate change.”

The first level took place between November 2023 and January 2024. All students were invited to participate by crafting a three-minute video in Minecraft Education showcasing a solution to a climate challenge that impacts Los Angeles. In this level, the Paul Revere students competed against 268 other teams before advancing.

“Minecraft is an open-world game that promotes creativity, collaboration and problem-solving in an immersive environment where the only limit is your imagination,” according to LAUSD. “Minecraft Education differs from the regular video game version as it is aimed for use in the classroom and contains features such as classroom mode and assessment tools that enable powerful learning experiences.”

The team worked under the direction of eighth-grade Paul Revere science teacher Mary Inglish, who lives in Pacific Palisades.

“Los Angeles is facing climate change emergencies such as drought, extended heatwaves, wildfires and unhealthy air quality,” read the first prompt. “Together, we can make changes to help our city thrive in the midst of climate change. Identify a climate emergency and build an innovative solution for your community that can improve how people adjust to climate change.”

Team Inglish’s project for Level 1 focused on water and carbon capture via biosequestration—meaning using diverse and abundant plant life to absorb carbon dioxide into soil. Their project encouraged LA-specific solutions, including building up park habitats (with more trees, flowers and grasses) and rooftop gardens.

Throughout the competition, the team members said they were able to take experience from previous classes, like agriculture and robotics, and apply it to their projects.

Kicking off in February, Level 2—Region Rumble Esports Tournament—featured the top four teams from each region and league that advanced from Level 1. There were 11 matches.

“During the Playoffs, four teams from each region will compete against each other, eliminating two teams from each region,” read a description. “During the Semi-Finals, two teams from each region will compete for the finals, eliminating one team. During the Finals, one team from each region will compete for the title of Level Up Los Angeles 2024 Champions.”

The Palisadian-Post spoke with the five team members three days before they headed to the final level of the competition on March 21, at Two Bit Circus in downtown LA. At that point, they said they were a bit nervous, but also that they were well-prepared.

Level 2 consisted of Playoff, Semi-Final and Final rounds—each with a different prompt. For the three rounds of Level 2 competition, the five team members took what they learned and practiced, and responded to the prompt with a build in Minecraft Education in real-time—first virtually and then in-person.

Playoffs focused on creating a “sustainable solution that tackles water-related issues” in LA, with Semi-Finals directing students to “design a community center that helps to reduce the greenhouse gases and pollutants in our air.”

In the Playoffs, the team said they focused their project on harnessing water from the LA River to provide across the county, as well as rainwater systems. Another aspect was reuse and recycling of water used in the home.

“Extreme heat has an increasing and dangerous impact on Los Angeles and exacerbates other climate issues,” read the Finals prompt. “As temperatures rise and heatwaves become more frequent and intense, we face serious challenges to our health and environment, especially in vulnerable communities. Your task is to design a school that stays cool even on the hottest days. Consider how schools are currently built, and design a school that is heat resilient and incorporates nature-based solutions.”

In their final build, Mihalev explained to the audience and judges gathered at Two Bit that the team considered “outlandish” and “eccentric” ideas, but ultimately settled on something simple “that would work easily across LA.”

Emanuel described some of the specific materials used in the school—like UV-reflective glass windows, solar-reflective walls, a cool roof and solar panels.

Kaplan explained the plants that were built in, like rubber and snake plants, that are “high transpiration” and are “very efficient” when it comes to helping cool off the school and area around it.

Roughton shared some details about LA-specific weather, that when averaged across the 12 months of the year, the average temperature is 75.3 degrees—though, in reality, that can be much higher during times like summer, when it reached 121 degrees in Woodland Hills in September 2020.

After their presentation, the judge said they appreciated Team Inglish’s specific details and that they appreciated how the team implemented several strategies that were designed to work together to keep the school cool. The judge said they did an “excellent job.”

In the Finals, Paul Revere faced off against the Climate Crusaders team from Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academy representing the North, Bear Team from Benjamin Franklin High School from the East, Scorching Flames team James A. Foshay Learning Center from the South and Blazing BEVA Builders from Business/Entrepreneurship Virtual Academy representing the Virtual Academy region, who took home the win.

When asked if they had an interest in Minecraft before beginning their journey in the competition, there was a unanimous “yes” from the five team members. They also were all friends before the competition.

They said they would sign up for another contest of this nature, that they enjoyed many aspects of the project, including finding a solution to a problem in their own city.

Inglish explained that throughout their participation in the competition, the students spent weekends, lunch and some class time working on the prompts, roughly seven to 10 hours per week.

The competition, the team explained, posed a “unique challenge,” having to learn something they would not have otherwise at school.

They also cited the “sense of accomplishment” they felt, saying that it had been a “great journey.”

“People think Minecraft is just a game,” Inglish said, “but what they’re able to do with it is just amazing.”