FizziksGuy

Thrilled to hear it's getting use outside just my little sphere of influence, but the real credit goes to all the great folks on the forums who have guided me in this endeavor! Thanks gang! Definitely up for some online collaboration -- would love to hear how it works out in your class. Once your project is complete, perhaps we could find a time to talk and maybe try to compile our learnings to improve future efforts on both sides of the pond?

And with one day left, we finally have our first non-Kerbin landing on Duna, which included a manual docking and return to Kerbin! http://aplusphysics.com/community/index.php/topic/1867-ksp-harbres-research/page-2 Thanks for all the help folks, some re-tooling and tweaking for next year, but I'd consider this project a great success!

Also, the project got KSP some more good press on PC Gamer: http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/05/30/kerbal-space-program-blasts-into-physics-classroom-as-an-end-of-year-project/

Some more great ideas, thanks folks. Will definitely incorporate many of these when I re-tool the project for next year's classes!

Looks like some others are starting to pick up on the idea of KSP in physics classes. Check out this blog post in Wired.com by SE Louisiana Physics Professor Rhett Allain!

Much as I'd like to, it was already a huge undertaking to get the game set up on our classroom computers, allow the students access to the Screenshots folders (an ongoing issue), etc. I'm pretty certain I'd be pushing my luck by trying to get our IT folks to install modifications. Good thought, though!

I love it!

This is awesome, thank you!

Thanks, I've added a link to The Drawing Board on the resources portion of our project page. Tons of great stuff for the kids (and myself) to devour!

I'm not sure if it will let you upload .crafts or not... will be interesting to find out. I'm thinking in general, though, that they're probably better off struggling through the building of their own rockets / stations / etc. You could link to them on another site if they're posted elsewhere, though. Thanks for the great feedback!

Much appreciated -- so far all the advice from so many wonderful "teaching assistants" has been tremendous! Thank you!

Login and username are now changed.

It was just waiting on you to validate your e-mail address. Done manually, you should be all set!

Please -- the more feedback and interest, the more excitement, engagement, and ultimately, learning! And if you have some ideas on some awards for Easter Eggs, let me know and I'll add them to our prize page!

Thanks White Rider -- I'll get working on that issue right away.

Thanks for the feedback to the kids -- I bet they get quite a kick out of it!

And of course, as experts, feel free to post and provide advice if you're so inclined. I bet the kids would get a kick out of any experts providing input and assistance! By the way, thank you so much for the ongoing feedback and advice -- it's making this program so much more successful!

Hi Tollazor, After we run through it once this year, I want to take my learnings from running the program once, compile them, and write something up to inform next year's projects, and am certainly willing to share. Once it's done I'll make sure to post it on the APlusPhysics Downloads area (open to anyone who registers, mostly popular with physics teachers), and put a link here as well for anyone interested.

Hi White Rider, Yes, at the moment they're in "brute force" mode, just learning the basics of how to achieve orbit. I'm assuming as their funds deplete and they need to hit more aggressive milestones they'll start working on being more efficient in their designs. The parachutes are for any parts of their rocket they return to Kerbin -- they get half the cost back as salvage if the parts aren't destroyed. Right now they're still mostly playing, as most of their teams are still taking AP tests here in school (I have about 1/3 of my class in here at any given time). I'm expecting next week with full teams we'll see more scientific advancement. :-)

Hmmm, you can't see the screenies and reports? Found the problem. You should be able to see it all now. :-)

Want 'em to aim high, and realize they only have 40 minutes a day for a few weeks to get up to speed, and do write-ups as they go.

So, the students are off and running and having a blast with it. Also, glad to hear that after just one day, a number of them went home and picked up a copy of the software to play with at home as well. Our first mission reports were submitted just this morning, and I have students planning on coming in during their lunch periods for some extra time with the sim in a couple hours! Fun to see how many groups started by just randomly building and launching, and how many are now making plans to go home and watch the tutorials, study up on transfer orbits, Delta-V, thrust to weight ratios, etc., in order to outpace their competition.

Thanks -- those look like great resources! I've taken a lot of folks' input into consideration, so our project is now shaping up kind of like this... still a week left to tweak it, but thanks for all the help!

Thanks for all the great ideas folks, this is tremendous! With only four weeks of class time (~ 40 minutes a day), it'll be a balancing act of academic rigor with fun and interest-building engagement. I'll keep refining the project this coming week, will start it the following week, and will be sure to feed back what happens, how it goes, what changes should be made for the next attempt, etc. I think no matter what the kids will enjoy it, and my biggest fear is surmounting the technical hurdles so that KSP runs at a reasonable pace on our school computers with all the appropriate permissions, security, etc. You've been tremendous, thank you!!!!!

I do believe frame rate is going to be an issue, but am hoping the kids can make do...