Too much realism and accuracy can ruin the fun in an activity, and serve to prevent people from experiencing the intuitive learning that the game can offer. It’s important to keep in mind that players should not be scared off by the difficulty of a game. When people are presented with a fun leisure activity, it can help them pick up on tough subjects such as rocket science and orbital mechanics more naturally and easily. Teachers and research providers are always looking to teach science in a way that’s fun and accessible. Kerbal Space Program is also used in many primary and secondary education institutions around the world through our partnership with Teachergaming to create KerbalEDU and help teachers educate their pupils in science. Last year, the European Space Agency organized the Moon Challenge, in which international teams of university students used KSP to visualise their mission concepts and present them to the agency. It has also been used by students giving school presentations on the subject of astronomy. We’ve previously seen KSP used to teach higher education physics, in lessons revolving around circular motion. KSP is a game that you play to enjoy, but through which you can learn more about space exploration and science. It has a strong educational element, with a significant number of our players telling us that they have learnt more than they ever expected about space exploration. With Kerbal Space Program (KSP), we want the player to gain a deeper understanding of space exploration as a whole, and all the accompanying technological and scientific challenges that exist today and will in the near future.Īllowing players to be in control of their own learning and understanding of science, while keeping things relevant via a creative and accessible means, makes for a fantastic scientific teaching resource – one which only improves in the classroom.Īt the core of KSP is our desire to make it an appealing, exciting and interesting game, whichever way it’s approached. Many games and other learning applications centred on the theme of space exploration often devote themselves to one specific area of it – be it orbital mechanics, rocket science or more advanced areas such as relativistic effects. Despite this, interactivity in learning is slowly making its way there, and teachers are certainly more open to the idea of using games in education. Lessons today are still similar in pattern, with textbooks providing the backbone to the lessons. I found it difficult to engage with the topics we were learning about and to really grasp a deeper understanding of science, as I’m someone who learns through interaction and experimentation. My own memories of science learning at school are quite typical, in that it mostly revolved around textbook-based lessons with the odd videotape of an experiment too dangerous or expensive to do in the classroom being shown. Rocket science and orbital mechanics are complex areas to study – but as Ted Everett, technical producer on the simulation game Kerbal Space Program explains, injecting a little fun can make them much more approachable…
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