M. Chang et al. (Eds.): Edutainment 2011, LNCS 6872, pp. 517–521, 2011. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

A Review on the Concepts and Instructional Methods of Mini Digital Physics Games of PHYSICSGAMES.NET

Yen-Hung Shih1, Huei-Tse Hou2, and Ying-Tien Wu1

1 Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology, National Central University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan

trentabcd@gmail.com, ytwu@cl.ncu.edu.tw 2 Graduate Institute of Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,

#43 Keelung Road, Section 4, Taipei, Taiwan hthou@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Abstract. Nowadays, besides MMORPG, many mini games designed for enter-tainment got popular on the Internet (e.g. Angry bird etc). The software scale of these games was smaller and these games could be played by mobile devices. Also, they had lower costs of development. The application of these games to education was potential and worth researching. This paper used content analysis method to gradually analyze 90 mini Physics Games on PHYS-ICSGAMES.NET. The authors discovered that the physical concepts these games covered were mostly mechanics presently; also, most games based on the two concepts, static equilibrium and throwing body movement. Regarding instructional strategies, almost half was problem-solving tasks plus instructional strategies of mastery learning. We further discussed the possible application and limitations of these mini games on instructional practices, and proposed rele-vant suggestions.

1 Introduction

The studies on the application of e-learning games to instruction and learning were becoming progressively more important. Digital educational games possessed the elements such as goal, rule, competition, challenge, fantasy, entertainment, etc. [1]. Also, digital educational games could combine the goals of the games with instruc-tional objectives. Therefore, digital educational games combining with suitable instructional methods had pedagogical potential. Many studies have explored the potential of multiplayer online games for instruction [2],[3],[6]. Besides MMORPG, many single mini games designed for single-player were also very popular (e.g. An-gry bird etc.). The software scale of these games was smaller and these games could be played by mobile devices. Also, they had lower costs of development. The applica-tion of these games to education was potential and worth researching. Within these games, many games were designed by using physical principles (e.g. mechanics con-cepts etc); thus, maybe these games were beneficial to learn physical concepts.

Technology-assisted instructions of physics concepts often applied simulation soft-ware. Digital games can offer fidelity of simulations [1] and problem solving tasks; besides, the challenging, entertaining, and interactive characteristics were helpful for

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students to promote their learning motivations. Therefore, learning physics concepts by using mini games will become one of the new future tendencies towards technol-ogy-aided physical instructional activities. Although there were fewer physics mini games designed specifically for instructional objectives recently, there were still many games provide players problem-solving tasks for inferring and thinking physics con-cepts. However, the evaluations of these kinds of games (e.g., physics concepts, in-structional methods) were lacking. By reviewing and evaluating these mini physics games, this paper could provide as important references for designing future mini educational physics games.

The website, PHYSICSGAME.NET (http://www.physicsgames.net/), was one of the most internationally representative physics mini game websites. This website provided 90 free physics mini games for players. Each game was designed based on some kinds of physics concepts. To understand the instructional potential and limita-tions on the present physics mini games, this study aims to gradually analyze the concepts of the physics games (e.g. mechanics and electromagnetic etc.) and instruc-tional strategies (e.g. mastery learning, situated instruction, and problem-solving tasks etc.) on the website.

2 Analytic Methods

This study adopted quantitative content analysis. We gradually played and analyzed the 90 mini games on PHYSICSGAME.NET. To analyze the categories of physics concepts in the games, the coders in this study categorized according to the general physical concepts, e.g. fluid mechanics, general mechanics concepts (other mechanics concepts except fluid mechanics), electromagnetic, and thermodynamics etc. Regard-ing instructional strategies, we categorized according to the common mastery learn-ing, situated learning, and problem-solving tasks. Within these, if there were multiple concepts or multiple instructional strategies in the same game, we would give more codes for the game.

3 Results and Discussions

3.1 Analysis of Physical Concepts

After analyzing 90 Mini games, we discovered most games were designed by simply applying the general mechanics concepts. The mechanics plus fluid mechanics had 83 percentages which were higher than the other physics concepts. Because this category the general mechanics concepts covered a quite wide range, this study further ana-lyzed deeply this category to find out which detailed mechanics concepts were fre-quently used in the game design. Within 80 games including the general mechanics concepts (excluding fluid mechanics), the categories of the use of detailed concepts were as Table 1.

From the results, we found that the games designed from the general mechanics concepts were mostly static equilibrium, and the next was throwing body movement. These two kinds covered 73 percentages of all categories of the general mechanics games. This phenomenon was worth our attention.

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Fig. 1. Distribution of physics concepts applied by mini physics games on PHYS-ICSGAME.NET

Table 1. Distribution of the general mechanics concepts applied by mini physics games on PHYSICSGAME.NET

Categories Numbers Percentage Static equilibrium 44 55% Throwing body movement 14 18% Slope movement 4 5% Inertia 5 6% Gravity 12 15% Elasticity 1 1%

On the whole, most games on PHYSICSGAME.NET one-sidedly used the general

mechanics concepts to design the games, especially static equilibrium and throwing- body movement. This demonstrated that these two concepts static equilibrium and throwing body movement comparing with other concepts were easier to be showed in the manner of games to a certain extent. However, we discovered that the physics concepts excluding mechanics, e.g. electromagnetic and thermodynamics etc. simply had few percentages within these mini physics games. This phenomenon also ex-plained that if the mini physics games are used on instruction presently, the other subjects of the physics concepts except the general mechanics will still be restricted. We expected future researchers would design and develop relevant games.

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3.2 Analysis of Instructional Strategies

Figure 2 showed above was the distribution proportion of instructional strategies of 90 mini games. The adoption of the instructional strategy of mastery learning plus problem-solving tasks had 51 percentages; this integrated instructional strategy was mostly extensively used, and the next was situated learning with a combination of mastery learning and problem-solving tasks (21%).

Fig. 2. Distribution of instructional strategies applied by mini physics games on PHYS-ICSGAME.NET

Analyzing through the important component elements the existing studies pro-posed [1], we found that all games on PHYSICSGAME.NET were small games; also, most of them were single games without sufficient social interaction. Therefore, to promote the players’ motivations, these games focused on the use of the element “challenge”. During the game, numerous problem-solving tasks with gradually in-creasing difficulty were mostly provided for players to accept physics problem-solving challenges. Through continuously repeated problem-solving, the users would get more and more familiar with the “goals” and operation of the games which helped the users reach the objectives of mastering physics concepts; also, for the sake of reaching the tasks of problem-solving games, the players continuously reflected to revise problem-solving strategies [4] to continuously maintain their motivations for the games and help change their concepts. Consequently, the combination of these two instructional strategies (i.e., mastery learning plus problem-solving tasks) could make the instruction combine with the games. Some plots of situated stories were put in parts of the games which made the games dramatic and made players have more motivations for learning because of role-play. However, the cost of design was higher. Although the number of the situated games was limited, it proximately reached one-third (about 33 percentages). From the past studies, we found that much software of

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game-based learning was drill-based games [5]. Nevertheless, this study discovered that within the mini physics games we analyzed so far, simply applying mastery learning strategy without combining problem-solving and role-playing situation strat-egy had only about 10 percentages. This phenomenon showed that these interactive physics mini games have developed towards the combination of diverse instructional strategies recently.

4 Conclusion

This study analyzed 90 mini physics games. The results demonstrated that the physics concepts these games included were mainly mechanics, and most games were based on the two concepts: static equilibrium and throwing body movement. Regarding the instructional strategies, about half of the games used instructional strategy of prob-lem-solving tasks plus mastery learning. According to the results, we realized that these games were not designed especially for the educational needs; however, because the games covered some physics concepts and various integrative instructional strate-gies, using these games as assisted physics instruction to promote learning motiva-tions (especially for the learning unit of mechanics) should be considered.

We also discovered some limitations of these games, e.g. the limitations on physics concepts these games covered. We suggested that future researchers and software developers can design mini games by using the other physical concepts excluding mechanics. Besides, we suggested that more role-playing instructional strategies and simulated realistic situations should be provided in the games. This design will help learners produce transfer of learning by immersing themselves in story scenarios and help them cultivate their ability to solve practical physics problems.

Acknowledgments. This research was supported by the projects from the National Science Council, Republic of China, under contract number NSC-99-2511-S-011-007-MY3, NSC-98-2511-S-011-006, and NSC-97-2511-S-011-004-MY3.

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