Players interactively place pinned charges on the screen to direct the “Mite” (+1) into the hole. At the harder levels curved trajectories are made. Embedded tutorials help guide the player.
About Mitey's Electric Field
Mitey’s Electric Field starts with a short tutorial on charges and the E-field. The player is then able to move “Mitey”, a mischievous, escaped mite with a charge of +1. In an embodied manner players drag and place “pinned” charges anywhere on the screen and can observe the multiple vectors in the changing E-field by clicking on the “sunglasses” icon.
With more than 10 levels, students earn gold stars for perfecting manipulation of the E-field as they play. The physics in the game are based on Coulomb’s Law so that acceleration and electrostatic forces are accounted for.
In the harder levels, obstacles are placed in Mitey’s path, so students can try to visualize the multiple positive and negative pinned charge interactions that will move Mitey. Students will be able to explore pinning the charges in patterns that move Mitey in curved trajectories!
Learning Goals
Upon completion of this game, players will understand:
- Like charges repel each other
- That opposite charges attract each other
- That the magnitudes of the pinned charges affect the acceleration of the unpinned charge (Mitey)
- That distance affects positive acceleration and negative acceleration
- The E-field is highly interactive, all charges affect each other into infinity
- An engaging mechanism for visualizing, and confirming, the multiple interactions in a complex E-field
Teacher Guide
Peer-Reviewed Research
Johnson-Glenberg, M. C., & Megowan-Romanowicz, C. (2017). Embodied science and mixed reality: How gesture and motion capture affect physics education. Cognitive Research: Practices and Implications. 2, 24. 10.1186/s41235-017-0060-9.
System Requirements
Compatible with all webGL enabled browsers. Click here for more information.
Licensing Information
This game is free to share and adapt in compliance with the non-commercial creative commons license guidelines.
To request open source files, contact us for more information.
Disclaimer
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No1020367. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
