Games allow us to introduce learners to a concept and inject a bit of fun into the mix, too. One of our newest collaborators, Universe & More is a nonprofit organization that creates physics-focused games for students. We spoke to Matthew Blackman, chief game designer and developer at Universe & More, to learn more about his organization's content and philosophy.
We create educational games that help students explore foundational concepts of physics. Our games are designed to help students build real-world intuition for scientific principles as they play.
Universe & More started as a way to engage my own students with games that related directly to the topics they were learning. As I started to share them with other teachers, it gradually expanded into a nonprofit organization that now attracts over 10k users per day worldwide.
Sharing an excitement and appreciation for the laws of physics that govern every aspect of our world. Giving students a way to build an understanding of those ideas while refining their critical thinking and logical reasoning skills.
Crack the Circuit and Motion Mapper are my personal favorites. I've found that in those two games, students are able to construct an intuition for the physics concepts while still playing and having a great time.
Any way that they want! I have seen teachers assign Universe & More games to students individually or in small groups, play as a whole class, assign them for homework, and have even student using them on their own for reinforcement or to prepare for an assessment.
More games or more topics! We are currently working on games for momentum, circular motion, optics, and magnetism. We’re also looking at ways to translate the games into multiple languages.
I asked my physics teacher why she was standing on top of a desk. She responded “y-naught?”
Explore other Universe & More physics games in the LabXchange library:
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