A review on the concepts and instructional methods of mini digital physics games of PHYSICSGAMES.NET

Abstract

Nowadays, besides MMORPG, many mini games designed for entertainment 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 PHYSICSGAMES.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 relevant suggestions. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.