1/5

EHC Mission IIAuthor: TeacherGaming Date: September 1, 2015

Introduction

This lesson introduces students to Kerbals, the green would-be-spacefarers that inhabit the planet ofKerbin. While learning the basic game concepts, they will also get to know physics phenomenon along theway, familiarising themselves with constant speed, acceleration and Newton's second law. The goal is toadopt a mindset that encourages iterative testing and encourages to ask questions.

While, the in-game activities are self-sustaining - feel free to include other materials and instructions alongthe gameplay.

This lesson requires no previous knowledge of KerbalEdu.

Age of Student(s)

9yo. - 13yo.

Objectives

Game concepts:- Using engines: adjusting thrust- Different types of fuels

Physics concepts:- Displacement, time & average/instantaneous velocity- Visualization (velocity/acceleration arrows?)- Motion with constant acceleration

2/5

- Average and instantaneous acceleration- Concept of force

Historic concepts:- Opel RAK-2- Goddard�s Rocket NELL

Working skills:- Recognizing and framing problems- Cooperation and sharing responsibilities

Timeline

The mission is modular and can be adjusted to fit any pre-existing lessons. You can stop after any sectionif you don't want to progress to more advanced concepts.

Completing the whole lesson will take 30 minutes, excluding setup.

3/5

Learning Activities

Driving on runway

The first activity will take place on runway where students control a high-speed car. Their goal is to use astopwatch to measure their speed while driving.

Ask them to record the readings they take in a notebook or a KerbalEdu-sheet available on the Mission I -page. If you want, you can draw them on a graph and compare the split times, investigating the nature ofthe speed: did it change over time or did it remain constant.

TIP: Point out that at various points, students find extra information about the historic vehicles in theinstruction boxes.

Accelerating or constant speed?

This activity will challenge the students to control the thrust of the car to retain a constant speed as longas possible. They will score points by keeping the speed at the target range.

You can make this into competition: record the highscores on a board and set a number of attempts foreach student.

TIP: Press Z to quickly set maximum throttle or X to quickly kill the engines. CTRL and SHIFT are betterequipped for fine-tuning the speed.

Newton's First Law

An object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction if the forces affectingit...

The Kerbals are trying to figure out how to retain constant speed. Students need to help them figure outwhat they are missing from their incomplete theory above.

4/5

To make this easier, the Force Arrows are active. With them the students see a visual presentation of thetotal forces that affect the vehicle. If you want to encourage discussion, group 2-4 students on a singlecomputer for the activity.

Give them 5-10 minutes to form their own theories. Remind the students to take notes and talk with theirgroup. If they are having a hard time getting started, you can scaffold the process further by suggestingthey hit the target speed and observe the forces.Discuss: After every group has come up with at least some kind of theory, gather the their ideas together,for example on a blackboard. You can have each group presenting their idea and evaluate it as a group. Ifneed be, you can test them together as a class to see if they hold up.

End the activity by completing the First Law of Motion: An object in motion stays in motion with the samespeed and in the same direction if there are no forces acting upon it (the forces cancel each other out).

Predicting trajectories

In this activity, students try to replicate Robert Goddard's experiments with his NELL rocket. Their job is tofigure out the correct initial velocity for the rocket and hit the cabbage patch on the runway. They do thisby adjusting the velocity before launching.

If you want them calculating the correct velocity, they can follow a link to Wikipedia where the formula isexplained. You can of course do this in the classroom as well. Alternatively, you can take this as anexercise of iteration: what's the best way of figuring out the initial velocity if you have limited attempts?

You can also see how atmospheric forces affect the trajectory: the students are prompted to experimentwith it after they have hit the cabbages.

5/5

Assessment

Throughout the lesson the students are producing hypotheses and measurements. Evaluate their work asindividuals but also as members of a group. What kind of role did they assume in their group? Did theyshare the workload evenly?

Alignment with Curricula andStandards

3-PS2-1. (NGSS) Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects ofbalanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

3-PS2-2. (NGSS) Make observations and/or measurements of an object�s motion toprovide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

4-PS3-1. (NGSS) Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of anobject to the energy of that object.

4-PS3-4. (NGSS) Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that convertsenergy from one form to another.

MS-PS2-2. (NGSS)Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object�smotion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass ofthe object.