When our students utilize our proprietary coding language, KidScript®, to build their own digital games from the ground up, they often incorporate physics to make their creations more complicated and interesting.
One of the core coding concepts featured in the Codeverse curriculum is that of a physics engine. When our students utilize our proprietary coding language, KidScript®, to build their own digital games from the ground up, they often incorporate physics to make their creations more complicated and interesting.
It’s easy to take for granted just how much effort goes into creating some of the bigger games out there today, but in reality, it can take years and a team of hundreds of people to develop just one game! That's why it's so important that even the youngest coders are exposed to the more complex aspects of game creation. Here's three great reasons why we teach physics in coding at Codeverse:
All objects in the KidScript® system have physics applied. This means that things like gravity, friction, and mass can all be controlled via KidScript®. It also means that all of our objects will behave like they do in the real world. If a block is placed at the top of the game area, hitting “Run” will result in the block falling down and off the screen. Why? If you placed a block in the air, it certainly wouldn’t stay there - it would fall to the ground! Another example is that when a ball is launched from a cannon, it has an initial upward velocity, but due to gravity and air friction, it will arc back down towards the bottom of the screen.
Codeverse students use physics all the time when creating their own unique games. For example, a coder could create a trampoline by increasing the restitution on an object. A more advanced coder might create a game set in space, where the main gravity is disabled and custom gravitational force is set between planets, moons, and maybe even aliens! We also use physics to detect collisions between two objects, which is a popular event used by almost all of our coders.
Experimenting with physics in the context of their programs helps students understand how physics works in the real world. Through experimentation, students can see how changing physics properties changes the behavior of an object. For example, reducing the air friction on a launched ball will allow it to fly farther through the air. This is a big step in understanding how real world objects function and can be improved - if the car is not as fast as you want, what properties need to change? Will a ball roll farther on a surface with higher or lower friction?
