Guest article by Chris Wright from Dadding on the Road. This article is part of our Gameschooling with Video Games series.
STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, is one area where video games truly shine. Just like using video games to learn about social studies, being immersed in a science topic is a great way to learn.
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on it and make a purchase I’ll receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information, please check our Privacy Policy and Disclaimers and Disclosures.
Kerbal Space Program allows players to experiment with rockets using real-world physics. Players build rockets to get into orbit of the planet and can explore a whole solar system. Players can fly by guess and check. They can also get into the weeds and practice calculus to figure out how much fuel they’ll need to make an orbital transfer.
There are hundreds of forum posts online about how Kerbal Space Program helped students internalize the maths related to calculus and orbital mechanics. KSP helped them ace tests and exercises that left their peers in the dust. I’ve even seen posts about professors of physics planning a whole lesson around KSP as a tool to understand the forces at play.
Besiege is available on a variety of platforms (I just could not find it on Amazon). This building game from Spiderling Studios has players building siege engines and overcoming puzzle-like obstacles using a surprisingly robust physics engine. Much of the game is developing plans, seeing how they fail, revising your machine, and trying again. A great introduction to the scientific method!
Sandbox Games: There are many games out there where players get to experiment with falling sand. Some are better than others; our favorite is the Powder Toy where certain elements will interact and players can make complex multi-step reactions and machines.
Universe Sandbox: As the name suggests, this “game” allows players to experiment with orbital bodies. They can move planets around in the solar system and observe the effects. The game even has challenges like adjusting Earth’s orbit to freeze it, then bring it back, or using gravitational forces to make a habitable world around Jupiter.
Spore: Spore is a classic “evolution simulator” where players guide their creation from a single-celled organism swimming in the primordial seas of the planet all the way up to a multi-system interstellar civilization. As players guide their creatures, different paths open up to them based on how they play. The path starts simply with deciding if your creature should be an herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. It branches out as you play, making your society more war-like, culture-based, or balanced.
Poly Bridge is available on a variety of platforms (I just couldn’t find it on Amazon). Most engineering classes have the classic experiment/contest “build the strongest bridge you can” out of a material, typically spaghetti, and the professor will slowly add weight until it breaks. The winner is the student with the strongest bridge. Poly Bridge is much like this classic test, without wasting food! Players try to build the strongest and cheapest bridge over various obstacles and various lengths. The game tracks statistics globally so you can see how your design fits on the bell curve. The bridge-building simulator genera is actually pretty expansive with hundreds of titles on the market. Even Engineering.com has its own version, free, on its web page.
Tami’s Tower is a web-based (and an app!) engineering and physics game. Each level, players attempt to construct a way for Tami, a monkey, to get to fruit in a tree. It starts fairly simple but advances to requiring more complex towers. Players are only allowed to use the provided materials and often have to get creative to get up to the fruit.
Minecraft is a fabulous source of a variety of educational benefits. To take the educational aspects even further, Minecraft Education allows players to explore human and animal anatomy, electrical circuits, space, and more. (It’s difficult to get the education edition as a homeschooler, but if you can, do!) People have even created libraries in Minecraft containing a wide variety of banned books in countries with heavy censorship.
No matter what science topic your kids are learning, there are video games that can help them learn in an immersive, hands-on fashion. Next up: Learning Hand-Eye Coordination Through Video Games!