Is it OK to use KSP in daily teaching?

[Xavier513]

Hi, I'm a teacher from an education company, and I'm also a KSP player with 500+ hours.

I believe KSP has a great value in education and stimulating students' interest in science.

 

I want to design a series of courses for kids in elementary schools, about planes, rockets and those heroic stories of astronauts.

KSP will be used as a tool for students to interact with. Students can understand knowledge better, if they can actually operate a space craft.

The KSP software is bought and installed in my personal laptop. 

The courses I designed will be sold to schools, is it OK for me to use KSP in classrooms in daily teaching?

[AHHans]

Well, I can't think of a reason why it should be a problem having loads of other people watching you playing KSP. Or why anyone should bother if that's your friends, random people on the internet watching your youtube videos, or students that you are teaching. I also don't think it would be a problem if you let other people play on your laptop. (Giving them a copy of KSP without a license is a problem though.)

But more importantly is that you should have a look at KerbalEDU. E.g. on the KerbalEDU subforums here.

Edited September 30, 2019 by AHHans

[Xavier513]

@AHHans Good point, thanks. 

It should not be a problem if we see it that way -- having my students/friends watching me playing KSP or playing KSP on my laptop.

Besides, I'm using standard KSP because I developed my own control panel for students to play with, based on latest KSP. I think they will love it!   

Hmmm... Just in case, I think it's also not a problem, if any school want to buy the control panel, and use it on their own licensed KSP software, right?

[AHHans]

1 hour ago, Xavier513 said:

Just in case, I think it's also not a problem, if any school want to buy the control panel, and use it on their own licensed KSP software, right?

Not sure about that. Might be better to ask an actual lawyer.

[jost]

Ask TakeTwo what's ok and what's not. 

Maybe one of the community managers ( @PulsarPixie @UomoCapra @St4rdust) can help you.

Edited September 30, 2019 by jost

[sjwt]

Im glad  AHHans has already pointed you to the Education version of KSP => 

Definitely a good starting place. 

[PulsarPixie]

@Xavier513 We're so glad you'd like to use KSP as a teaching tool. As some have mentioned, we do have our KerbalEdu, which already contains school-ready lessons and missions for your students!

[ExtremeSquared]

It's great on Newtonian physics, and questionable on chemistry, and total bunk on biology, so it probably calls for a little bit of framing as such if being used in a consolidated science class.

[Xavier513]

22 hours ago, PulsarPixie said:

@Xavier513 We're so glad you'd like to use KSP as a teaching tool. As some have mentioned, we do have our KerbalEdu, which already contains school-ready lessons and missions for your students!

Thanks, I'll take a look at KerbalEdu.

Besides, am I allowed to build KSP control panels and sell them?

Some of the customers are interested in both my courses and my teaching tools(KSP + my homemade control panel). Each copy of KSP is bought and licensed of course.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Xavier513

[Kernel Kraken]

Yes. I bet it would be great as a kick- starter on orbital physics and aerodynamics. Just remember it's not 100% accurate due to the unity engine.

[PulsarPixie]

@Xavier513 Thanks again for your interest. We've reached out through DM to better answer your question! 

[magnemoe]

On 9/30/2019 at 10:25 AM, AHHans said:

Well, I can't think of a reason why it should be a problem having loads of other people watching you playing KSP. Or why anyone should bother if that's your friends, random people on the internet watching your youtube videos, or students that you are teaching. I also don't think it would be a problem if you let other people play on your laptop. (Giving them a copy of KSP without a license is a problem though.)

But more importantly is that you should have a look at KerbalEDU. E.g. on the KerbalEDU subforums here.

Making an KSP video to explain orbital mechanics or how rocket launches work is totally fine. 
KerbalEDU as I understand  is more like an making history setup there you set up an scenario for the students and I assume includes an limited licence for this so say 200 students can try this but not play more of the game. 
You can use Salyut 7 rescue mission as an great filter  here
 

[Triop]

 @Xavier513

Why do you even ask ?

Edited October 3, 2019 by Triop

[Guest]

Do note that KSP has many inaccuracies. It is suitable for teaching (Newtonian) physics. Engineering, chemistry, history, planetary sciences, thermodynamics, aerodynamics... not so much. You can use it, but do learn about what it gets wrong first, because there's a lot of this.

[snip]

Edited October 3, 2019 by Guest

[swjr-swis]

One thing I wondered for a while now about KerbalEDU and somehow never got around to ask: why isn't KerbalEDU a DLC for the regular game? Looks to me like a perfect fit for DLC release being an incremental set of dialogs and parts, and you would probably get as much sales from regular players as from educational buyers. More income, more profit, more incentive to spend extra manpower to update/improve it? Is there a downside?

[Vanamonde]

Some comments have been removed from this thread. Keep it on-topic, please. 

[Klapaucius]

19 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

One thing I wondered for a while now about KerbalEDU and somehow never got around to ask: why isn't KerbalEDU a DLC for the regular game? Looks to me like a perfect fit for DLC release being an incremental set of dialogs and parts, I actually got into KSP because I was asked to use it to help run a school program at the library I work at.and you would probably get as much sales from regular players as from educational buyers. More income, more profit, more incentive to spend extra manpower to update/improve it? Is there a downside?

I actually got into KSP because I was asked to use it to help run a school program at the library I work at.  In fact my first posts were asking about how to upskill myself as fast as possible!

We have Kerbal EDU. Honestly, Kerbal EDU is not that great.   It has a few missions that are of limited us and a few extra readouts, but I am sure the OP could design far better ones, especially if Kerbal Engineer was installed as well.

 

However, the big plus is educators are eligible for good discounts on multiple licences if you get it through Teacher Gaming. https://store.teachergaming.com

 

The other issue with teaching with KSP is the amount of time you need to spend just to get the students up to speed using the program.  If you are teaching high-school kids with good math skills, KSP can offer a lot, but I would also consider Simple Rockets 2.  It is far easier to learn, and that might be a better fit if you just want to convey a basic intuitive sense of orbital mechanics.  We actually got multiple licences for free on that one, so it is worth asking the aforementioned teacher gaming about.

 

Another worth considering, though it is more expensive, is Universe Sandbox2.

 

[AloE]

On 10/2/2019 at 11:02 PM, magnemoe said:

KerbalEDU as I understand  is more like an making history setup there you set up an scenario for the students and I assume includes an limited licence for this so say 200 students can try this but not play more of the game. 

KerbalEDU licenses are per login (i.e. not  'personal licenses')  so if I want 10 'students/people' to use the KerbalEDU form of KSP all at the same time I would need 10 login licenses from TeacherGaming...we create "classes" in TGdesk & assign login ID's to 'students' so basically I can have & assign id's for an 'infinite' number of classes & students but the number that can be logged in at the same time  is limited to the number of licenses that i (or the institution) hold. in the TGdesk account(s) being used.

Also, Kerbal EDU is a fully functional form of 'normal' KSP, at the moment though it is still at 1.4.5...I was hoping for a 1.7.3 release (yearly updates to KerbalEDU have been pretty regular) but I think @MarkZero has had a full plate with other software in TG's subscription suite....I also still use KerbalEDU's Mission Editor (both since it has some features not in the Making History DLC Mission Builder & since the DLC has not been officially offered to KerbalEDU license holders or TG)

I am curious as to where this goes as one remarkable aspect of KSP is the amount of remarkable community "open source" contributions...with voluntary patreon or donation options and some amazing youtube content

On 10/1/2019 at 3:10 PM, Xavier513 said:

Some of the customers are interested in both my courses and my teaching tools(KSP + my homemade control panel)