Step Educational use of Serious Game: What is it about?
This first VTÉ-CFORP lab step is the opportunity to explore serious games in education in Quebec with Mecanika; a game developed in Quebec. Its goal is to collect stars with little rocks by creating a path of impulsions, accelerations and rotations in order to trigger misconceptions commonly encountered by physics novices.
This first VTÉ-CFORP’s lab step is the opportunity to explore serious games in education in Quebec with Mecanika; a game developed in Quebec.
Introducing Mecanika
According to Francois Boucher-Genesse, Mecanika founder, “This is the little game I worked on as part of my Masters at UQAM. The name is Mecanika, and is a mix between Lemmings and World of Goo. The goal of Mecanika is to collect stars with little rocks by creating a path of impulsions, accelerations and rotations. The point of the game is to trigger misconceptions commonly encountered by physics novices and to be a fun homework that teachers can then use as a tool to address student’s misconceptions… with fun!”
Moreover, we invite those who understand French to have a look at this video featured in the French-speaking TV show Découverte (Radio-Canada): Mécanika ou jouer avec la physique.
Mecanika was financed by the Inukshuk initiative, which allowed Creo to create a physics Island on their website to host the game Game for Science.
We look forward to welcoming the three participants in our VTE-CFORP laboratory:
- François Boucher-Genesse, Mecanika founder.
- Steve Desfossés, Science Teacher at Saint-Bernard Collège in Drummondville.
- Martin Riopel, ICT Teacher in Education and Pedagogy Department as well as a researcher at Laboratoire mobile pour l’étude des cheminements d’apprentissage en science (LabMécas) at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
- introduction based on the French-speaking TV show Découverte (Radio-Canada) above.
- Contextual exploration in sciences: homework, flipped classroom, experiental learning and so on.
- Content appropriation in a classroom, at home, with and without assistance.
- Pedagogical and Teacher guides explanation.
- Questions from participants.