Many physics teachers assign projects where students are asked to measure real‐world motion. One purpose of this student‐centered activity is to cultivate the relevance of physics in their lives. Typical project topics may include measuring the speed of a student's fastball and calculating how much reaction time batters are given. Another student may find the trajectory of her dive off the blocks at the pool and its effect on race time. Leaving the experimental design to the student's imagination allows for a variety of proposals ranging from stopwatches to highly technical video analysis. The past few years have shown an increase in students' eagerness to tackle the physics behind the motion of virtual characters and phenomena in their own video games. This paper puts forth a method of analyzing the physics behind bringing the games students are playing for enjoyment into the physics classroom.
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April 2011
PAPERS|
April 01 2011
Harnessing Students' Interest in Physics with Their Own Video Games
Christopher Like
Christopher Like
Bettendorf High School, Bettendorf, IA
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Phys. Teach. 49, 222–224 (2011)
Citation
Christopher Like; Harnessing Students' Interest in Physics with Their Own Video Games. Phys. Teach. 1 April 2011; 49 (4): 222–224. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3566031
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