Capítulo 21. Educational Game of Newton’s Laws
Dimensions
Capítulo 21. Educational Game of Newton’s Laws
*Rafael Espinosa Castañeda, Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores
Monterrey, campus Querétaro
**Carolina Yolanda Castañeda Roldán, ***Marbella Muñiz Sánchez
Departamento de Eléctrica y Electrónica
Instituto Tecnológico de Puebla
Introduction
Nowadays we are facing difficult times where education had to shift its traditional tools to modern ones in a very brief time period. The Covid-19 pandemic has presented educators a big challenge —make students focus and learn about any topic outside the school. Therefore, due to today’s challenges, we need didactic, fun, and flexible tools which may allow the process of teaching and learning. In this work, we specifically design an innovative tool for teaching Newton’s Laws. Piedras (2019) indicates that in Mexico 68.7 million people play videogames, so in the necessity of an innovative tool to teach Newton’s Laws, we chose to develop an educational videogame so flexible that the user can study Newton’s Laws anywhere and at any time. Since the student plays, the process of learning becomes fun and entertaining. Also, with the use of the videogame, superior mental skills are stimulated such as attention, learning, memory, language, consciousness, and physical and mathematical reasoning.
The paper is structured as follows: First we mention what are educational games and educational videogames (evg); then we discuss about the evg design we implemented; thirdly we talk about some parts of the application (app), and finally we end with conclusions.
Educational Games and Educational
Videogames (evg)
Ortiz et al. (2018) indicate that an educational game is a tool for structuring thought and language. They also mention that an educational game acts systematically over the psychosomatic equilibrium and reduces the feeling of failure when the learner makes mistakes. Furthermore, educational games develop creativity and intellectual competences. According to Rodríguez (2014), educational videogames (evg) are strategic technological tools with educational goals that lead to integral learning experiences. In our evg to teach Newton’s Laws, we implemented different kind of games, such as:
• Question-based learning game. According to Choi et al. (2008), prompt questions games have been successful to help students to learn and develop problem solving skills. In Figure 21.4b is shown how questions are made to the user in the evg “Leyes de Newton”.
• Memory matching game. Its objective is to increase memory skills and spatial organization skills. Also, students who play these kind of games develop the skill to stay focused and filter information they receive from the environment. In “Leyes de Newton” a memory matching game is implemented as shown in Figure 21.4a.
Design of the Application (app) of Newton’s Laws
For the design of Newton’s Laws evg (Figure 21.1a) we considered:
1. According to Gutiérrez (2012), the necessary design concepts to catch the user’s interest on learning, such as: identify the learning goals, create real characters and, when the user solves a problem, emphasize emotions, conflicts, challenges and competences. These were translated specifically into the evg as:
(a) Learning goals are identified for each Newton’s law.
(b) The characters are the avatars of Newton, Hooke and Leibniz, the last two mentioned as academical adversaries of Newton (Figure 21.1b).
(c) When playing question-based games, the evg evokes emotions when Newton challenges his adversaries. Whenever the user answers correctly any question, Newton throws apples to either Leibnitz or Hook. In the opposite case, when the user answer is incorrect, either Leibnitz or Hook attack back Newton.
2. According to Mora (2012), any learning object (lo) must strive to accomplish just one learning goal through activities and evaluations. So, the LO’s for each Newton’s Law (Figure 21.1a) has:
(a) Learning goal. Each Newton’s Law is a learning objective. On each lo, a Newton’s Law is defined and reinforced with an animation that exemplifies it.
(b) Practical exercises. For example, the user is taught how to calculate the tension of an inclined rod attached to a body. The Free Body Diagram (fbd) is displayed to the user and explicitly shows the forces acting on the body. Consequently, using the fbd, we teach to the user how to deduce the tension of the rod from the sum of forces exerted on the body.
(c) Evaluation of the learned concepts by the user. On each evaluative evg, the user must apply the acquired knowledge. If the user has acquired the necessary skills to solve Newton’s Laws problems, the user will be capable to discern the correct action to implement. If the user does not get the correct action, the evg encourages the user to review the concepts concerning the Law evaluated and gives feedback to guide to the correct answer. Furthermore, the avatar of Hooke or Leibniz makes certain action, depending on whether the user answers right or wrong (Figure 21.4b).
App “Las leyes de Newton”
“Las leyes de Newton” is a Unity app in 2D, coded in C#. According to the design shown in figure 1a, some parts of the app are:
(a) Cover page and menu of options. See Figures 21.2a and 21.2b, respectively.
(b) The option menu shown in Figure 21.2b, has 7 buttons (each picture is a button). When clicking any of the upper 4 buttons, the definition of each of the Newton’s Laws is displayed, as well as an animation that exemplifies it. Furthermore, in the new popped screen appear buttons that link to examples and an evaluative game. For example, in Figure 21.3a is shown the Newton’s Second Law. By clicking the button “Juego evaluativo”, the screen shown in Figure 21.3b pops out to the user. In this screen is shown an evaluative game. Here the user selects different values of kinetic friction coefficient between the box and the surface where the box slides, the exerted force applied on the shown box by an external agent and the mass of the box. Finally, certain angle is given to the user, so that the user must calculate the acceleration of the box and the normal force with all the data diven. Whenever the user introduces through the keyboard correct answers to both values, an animation appears showing Newton pulling the box. Otherwise, a message pops out asking to retry. The game ends when the user solves the problem correctly.
(c) The scene shown in “Ecuaciones” (Figure 21.3c) is a menu with concepts and mathematical deductions of equations related to Newton’s Laws.
(d) The button “Juego DCL” shown in Figure 21.2b, links to the memory matching game shown in Figure 21.4a. There, each card shows a different physical situation, so that the user must match such situation with their corresponding fbd given in another card.
(e) The button of the question-based game “Juego Acertijos” shown in Figure 21.2b directs to a subgame of Newton versus Hooke, as shown in Figure 21.4b. Here, the user must select the correct answer. Depending on the user’s response, Newton throws apples to Hooke if the answer is correct (figure 4b), otherwise Hooke attacks Newton with a spring (Figure 21.4c). This loops until the score of either Newton or Hooke is zero.
Evaluation of “Leyes de Newton” evg
For testing the evg, 64 students used the “Leyes de Newton” evg in October 2020. These students from Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Querétaro were surveyed to test the evg. Also, the students presented two diagnosis exams, one before using the evg and one after using it. The students were divided into two groups of 32 students each. The average of both groups before using the evg were 43.9/100 and 47.5/100. After using the evg, the average scored by the groups were 61.97/100 and 63.97/100. In Figure 21.5a we notice that more than half of the 64 students used the videogame for less than 2 hours. So, an improvement of approximately 20 points after using the videogame less than 2 hours is a great improvement. In Figure 21.5b we can see that more than 80% of the students would use the evg until they master the Newton’s Laws. And in Figure 21.5c we can see a tendency of students to feel that the evg is useful to learn about Newton’s Laws. The 10 students who evaluated with 0 the question shown in figure 21.5c could not properly install the evg in their computers.
(a) Results to the question “How long you played to complete the game Newton’s Laws”
(b) Results to the question “Would you play the game until you master Newton’s Laws?”
(c) Results to the question “Do you consider the game useful to learn Newton’s Laws?”
Conclusions
The “Leyes de Newton” evg will let the teaching-learning process of Newton’s Laws to be natural, playful and entertaining. The evg is designed so that the user would learn Newton’s Laws solving real life problems. Furthermore, the user will have the flexibility to study playing at any place where the user has access to a computer. Moreover, the data acquired from the perception from 64 students who played the videogame shows that they found useful to use the videogame to learn Newton’s Laws. Also, the average of the 64 students improved by 20 points out of 100. 51.6% of the students used the videogame less than 2 hours.
References
Choi, I., Land, S. M., & Turgeon, A. (2008). Instructor Modeling and
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Gutiérrez, K. (2012). Los 5 componentes decisivos de los juegos de aprendizaje. Shift: Disruptive eLearning.
Mora, F. (2012). Objetos de aprendizaje: Importancia de su uso en la educación virtual. Calidad en la Educación Superior, 3(1), 104-118.
Ortiz-Colón, A. M., Jordán, J., & Agredal, M. (2018). Gamificación en educación: Una panorámica sobre el estado de la cuestión. Educação e Pesquisa, 44, e173773. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1678-4634201844173773
Piedras, G. (2019). Industria de videojuegos: Un cambio (in)esperado. Oportunidad de Negocio e Impacto de la Regulación en Telecomunicaciones.
Rodríguez, R. G. (2014). Los videojuegos como objetos de aprendizaje [Prezi presentation]. Prezi. https://prezi.com/njiyhprcmaus/los-videojuegos-
como-objetos-de-aprendizaje/