Bill Nye “The Science Guy!” is working with developer Gamedesk to create a game for the iPad to teach kids all about aerodynamics, and they’re funding it on Kickstarter. The tagline? “Help Us Teach Difficult Science Concepts Through a Beautifully Engaging 3D Bird Flying Game.” How can it go wrong?
GameDesk has already created an early prototype of the game, using funds from a partnership with Iridescent Learning and funding from the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the Office of Naval Research. They’ve partnered with Bill Nye to bring a level of publicity to the project, hoping to create a multi-island fully open world environment to a learning game that will start on the iPad, and hopefully migrate to the Kinect and other innovative platforms from there.
Plus, if you choose to back this project, you can deduct the donation from your taxes, as GameDesk is a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
The idea seems to be to take the complex conceptual concept around the physics of flight and aerodynamics, and create a way to actually show all the forces involved in the flight of a bird or an airplane. Nothing helps us all learn better than experiential learning, and short of becoming a bird, this is the close as most of us will get to fully experiencing the physics of flying. Plus, bill Nye volunteered his time to be the teacher in this game, helping to explain all the ideas behind flying. So cool!
Here’s what the project page promises for the final version of the game.
FEATURES OF THE COMPLETED GAME
FULL EXPLORATORY WORLD with multiple islands and caves to explore. Land on, take-off from, and explore every island.
15+ CHALLENGES: flight-based and aerodynamic-learning challenge rings.
AERODYNAMIC FLIGHT LESSONS: Five fully developed interactive aerodynamic lessons teaching lift, drag, thrust, constant and terminal velocity, gravity, banking, turning and more.
A full soundtrack!
With 29 days to go, the iPad educational game project currently has 142 backers, and have $2,090 pledged for its $100,000 goal. Head on over to the AERO 3D Bird Flight Game Kickstarter page if interested, and check out the video at the top.
Source: Kickstarter
Via: Reddit
