Games based learning: A case of learning Physics using Angry Birds

Shabana Umrani

doi:10.17485/ijst/v13i36.853

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Game-Based Learning (GBL) is an emerging term that has attained focus and appreciation at a remarkable level these days, the GBL plays a significant role to learn through games. Angry Birds (AB) is one of the games which are very popular among kids that they mostly spend more than 8 hours of the whole day to play this game. AB’s popularity among the kids is due to its user-friendly easy interface and easy rules. Interface and rules of the game reveal primary physics theories and concepts. This study is conducted to modify the AB interface in such a way that basic physics concepts can be taught to secondary school students using this Game Based Tool (GBT). The objective is to provide GBL tool to teachers and students. That will be helpful for teachers to teach the physics concepts in an interesting way to students.Methods/Statistical analysis: The interface of the AB game is modified in such a way that while students perform various actions to kill the targeted pigs, to hit the objects for scoring, they will be able to learn physics, i.e., projectile motion and some basic concepts of physics involved in achieving the goals. This paper will present the modified interface of AB and how that is used for physics learning. This study is carried to attempt the mentioned objective. The experiment was conducted on 80 students of secondary school,i.e. group 1 played traditional AB game and learned physics in classroom without gaming aid and group 2 learned physics theories in class and used the modified AB game for playing game additionally learned physics from the actions they performed during play. Findings: This study shown that simple and interesting games can be used for learning scientific theories for secondary school students. The study achieved improved results after implementing the lectures using GBL tool to teach physics. 30% of 40 students got 80% of scores in class using GBLT while 25% of 40 students got 80% in class without supplementary GBT. Novelty/Applications: This GBT may be advantageous for teachers and students. Keywords: GameBased learning; angry birds; Physics learning; mobile games

Highlights

The essence of education is achieved when the learners can attain maximum learning with motivation to learn
Without game-based instructional strategies the children don’t get the benefit as they can Several video games are used for learning purposes in the classroom Angry Birds got extra admiration and attention among all presented by Rovio. [18,19] AB is a famous puzzle game and built on physics rules in which the objective is to kill completely the pigs inside 2D level location using a large quantity of birds
It became the motivation that AB game interface can be modified to involve basic physics concepts for Middle school students this study is undertaken to modify Angry birds game in such a way that it can be used as a learning tool in conjunction with other learning material to learn physics

Summary

Introduction

The essence of education is achieved when the learners can attain maximum learning with motivation to learn. While [29] enlightened the methods to use mobile game angry bird to learn “projectile motion” by the students of physics. From these studies, it became the motivation that AB game interface can be modified to involve basic physics concepts for Middle school students this study is undertaken to modify Angry birds game in such a way that it can be used as a learning tool in conjunction with other learning material to learn physics. This game may be used as an experiential tool for physics learning and may facilitate teachers to teach the course

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion