Students’ reasoning while playing an educational game on Newton’s laws

Abstract

Students seem to struggle more with physics in comparison with other school subjects. A possible reason for lower grades for physics could be preconceptions students have about mechanics. Students score low for mechanics, making it one of the most difficult topics within the physics exam. A possible effective way of dealing with preconceptions is using the serious game Newton´s Race (Serious game teaching Newton’s laws). Students can experiences the inconsistencies between their preconceptions and scientific knowledge without being bounded to the known physics laws. To learn via a game effectively, it is important for students to reason correctly about Newton´s laws. For this research students (N=18) played the game in pairs and had to show their reasonings whilst playing the game. All statements are investigated to determine on what level these students reason at the start and at the end of the game. Students were found the reason primarily with predictive statements and students made less mistakes in these predictive statements when they got further in the game (p=.001). The reasoninglevel in general did not change significantly. The only significant change is the decrease in number of observing statements in which physics concepts are used. To improve this game as a classroom intervention it should be imbedded in other interventions to ensure students do not only reason with predictive but also with explaining statements and students should be invited to reason with concepts and comparisons.