Potential Penguin - SciStarter

In order to facilitate an intuitive understanding of classical physics concepts, we have developed Potential Penguin - a game where players manipulate the landscape around a sliding penguin in order to control its movement. The learning goal of Potential Penguin is to familiarize players with kinetic energy and potential energy - the energies associated with movement and position in the landscape respectively. When the player manipulates the landscape, the potential energy of the penguin is changed, which determines the penguin's movement. To build a strong connection between theory and game the analytical expressions for kinetic and potential energy are displayed during play with font sizes continually growing and shrinking according to changes in each energy type. We aim to investigate whether a proficiency and understanding of Potential Penguin predict a deeper understanding of the quantum physics behind our other game Quantum Moves 2.