![]() ![]() This project was less about using KSP to teach a physics concept (although they did learn a lot), but more a recreation of the various mission control styles of play that have been posted on this sub before. Oh well, I’ll just have to do it again next year! Therefore, my plan of cutting together a couple videos of my kids actually using ksp was ruined. I am cursing my laziness however, because I didn’t know that twitch deleted recorded streams. There seemed to be some interest in how I used KSP in a high school classroom, so I figured I would finally get around to writing this up. #KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM CONTROLS 2018 FULL#Luckily, the physics-teaching vanguard is already probing out into the far reaches of the Kerbol system! Here is a captioned photo album an AP Physics teacher created showing the use of Kerbal Space Program in a lesson:Īnd here’s the teacher’s full explanation of the lesson from : mass, specific impulse, and the importance of the thrust-to-weight ratio in overcoming both gravity and inertia. The only resources you aren’t required to handle are those related to life support like food and breathable oxygen-but maybe that’s a blessing, because you don’t want to watch your little green spaceman asphyxiate or starve! Comic: Randall Munroe, CC BY-NC 2.5ĭue to its realistic modeling of Newtonian physics, Kerbal Space Program can plausibly be used as a classroom tool to demonstrate concepts such as orbital mechanics, weight vs. The little jets which help you adjust your ship’s rotation in space require tanks of monopropellant. #KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM CONTROLS 2018 INSTALL#If you rely on any electricity-based parts like floodlights, you will also need to install batteries and a power source like solar panels. Rocket engines need both fuel and oxygen to burn, while atmospheric jet engines only need fuel. ![]() In addition, the game requires strict resource management. Just take a look at this absolutely mind-blowing orbital rescue video created by Scott Manley, skipping ahead to 13:00 if you just want to catch the final approach: Learning how manipulate a spaceship’s orbit is extremely complicated. The catch is that this isn’t like Star Wars: real Newtonian physics applies to everything! Spaceships in a vacuum don’t work anything like the airplane-style spaceships in sci-fi movies. More complex spaceships might have literally thousands of individual parts.Īfter they build spaceships, players have the option to fly them out into space. For example, a basic rocket ship might have a command capsule (i.e., a cockpit) at the top, a fuel tank, a rocket engine, and some landing struts. At your space center, you can build rocket ships and space planes out of a giant variety of parts, snapping the pieces together like legos. Your home planet, Kerbin, is populated by a race of little green aliens called Kerbals. You start at a space center (approximating Cape Canaveral) on a fictional planet in a fictional solar system similar to our own, complete with many planets, moons, and even gas giants. ![]() Kerbal Space Program is a similar game in the sense that it’s a “sandbox”. For the past few years, it’s been a wildly popular game with children and adults alike, and the Internet abounds with stories of teachers either incorporating Minecraft into the classroom or else bemoaning that their students use school computers and laptops to surreptitiously play the game when they should be working. It’s an open “sandbox” world where players can interact with their blocky environment and build whatever wonderful creations they can think up. I think it’s fair to say that many, if not most, K-12 teachers are familiar with Minecraft. ![]()
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