Pixel International Conferences

This paper describes an exploratory study aimed to determine whether commercial video games can be used as a tool to improve the modeling skills of engineering students. The study was carry out in sixty Engineering students, who were attending a course of Fundaments of Physics for Engineers. The study was conducted in three phases. At the first, students were asked to find technically feasible solutions to a simple physical problem, which consisted of throwing a target located beyond an obstacle by means of a ball. The solutions proposed often included catapults, but many of these proposals were incorrect because: a) they were inconsistent with the laws of physics, b) they were technically unfeasible due to design errors, or c) did not show details enough to specify the behavior of the device. In the second phase, students, using a commercial game, practiced in the search for solutions to some virtual physical problems similar to that proposed in the first phase. For the development of this phase, we wanted games that allowed modeling the influence of the shape on the path, so fixed design programs like “Angry Birds” were discarded and modular design programs like “Crayon Physic” were selected. In the third phase students were asked to rewrite their initial proposals. In the analysis of the results it shows that after the modeling phase the students were able to identify many of the design errors and make substantial improvements to their initial proposals. Therefore, this exploratory study looks promising for the usefulness of the video games as a tool for modeling in formal educational settings.