Exploring “Space Engineers”: A Video Game as an Academic Tool for Simulating Physics Laboratory Classes

• Main Authors: Bernal, Liam Ryley G., Carpio, Aljustrel Nino S., Saluta, Lesmon Andres Lenin L., Xu, Donald G.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Simulations; Physics; Space Engineers; Online Classes; Physics Laboratories
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/conf_shsrescon/2022/paper_csr/4; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1164&context=conf_shsrescon
• Institution: De La Salle University

As the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world on hold, schools were forced to close their doors and conduct their classes in an online setup. In the online setup, students do not experience the same interactivity as face-to-face classes. Technology today now offers online simulations that can make up for the lack of interactivity in the online setup. By using a simulation game entitled “Space Engineers”, the study aims to investigate the different possible activities present in Space Engineers that are best in assisting the students in learning certain physics concepts. Through this, learning activities can be designed in the simulation game that can act as virtual laboratory classes. With the combination of a pre-experiment test, post-experiment test, and opinion survey, the scores collected will go through a comparison with the use of Mean and Standard Deviation Analysis and T-Test. After gathering the data and using the mean and sd analysis, the resulting p-value was >0.5. The use of Space Engineers as a means of providing a virtual laboratory to students yields no significant difference when compared to the usual set-up of experiments and activities the students are subjected to in online classes.