Crayon Physics Deluxe

Influential physics game is still a draw

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 1 review

Privacy rating

Not yet rated
Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

2–12

Subjects & Topics

Science

Price: Paid
Platforms: Linux, Mac, Windows

Pros: Since there's not just one answer, students devise their own creative solutions.

Cons: Physics concepts not explicit, and there's not much help for stuck students.

Bottom Line: Instantly engaging and super accessible to learners of many ages and abilities, Crayon Physics Deluxe fuses conceptual science learning with a brand of playful problem solving that demands creativity.

Teachers can use this game as an introduction to simple machines or basic physics concepts. Get students to play through a few levels and then share some of their solutions in front of the whole class. Use these talk alouds as a way to identify and define terms like "gravity"  or point out the use of fulcrums.Teachers can also issue challenges to students, getting them to design levels that use particular simple machines or demonstrate concepts. These projects can be done in teams, and shared with the class as a whole. To get students experience with game design, have the class play and provide feedback for the levels. Then, based on this feedback, students should tweak their level designs. Play can be extended and contextualized through hands-on building and experimentation with projects from Make Online or DIY.

In Crayon Physics Deluxe, students draw the world into being -- a world infused with physics concepts and simple machines -- to solve puzzles in ways only bound by their imaginations. With each level, students must guide a ball to a star. Sometimes this means drawing ramps, sometimes it means creating makeshift machines operated by gravity, or which take advantage of momentum. Students can replay each level as many times as they choose, inventing new solutions, or improving on their previous ones. Data from their attempts is displayed on a score screen. Kids may also create their own levels for play, and can share them online with other players.

Despite limited explicit instruction, students are presented with opportunities for constructivist, conceptual learning -- learning that's accessible to students of a wide grade range and of a variety of ability levels. Dropping weights, building constructs, and interactive drawings allow students to intuit an understanding of important physics concepts like gravity, acceleration, and leverage while using simple machines like inclined planes and levers. The physics knowledge students gain has a very practical purpose because the better students understand these concepts and tools, the more options they have to solve levels. And since there's a variety of solutions, students can help each other out and return to the experience again and again.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

The crayon-based interface is light and appealing, encouraging kids to create amazing solutions by drawing a wide variety of colored shapes to playfully solve puzzles. 

Pedagogy

Kids use physics creatively, drawing scales, weights, hinges, and slides to guide balls to objectives. They experiment in an equation-free environment where every problem has multiple solutions.

Support

Effective visual tutorials deliver a world in which language is not needed. Help is sparse, but the game is all about trying things out, not following directions.

Community Rating

There aren't any featured reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

Privacy Rating

This tool has not yet been rated by our privacy team. Learn more about our privacy ratings