Can Portal Effectively Teach Physics Concepts in the Classroom?

[Dopplershift]

So I have found this awesome resource called 'Teaching with Portal"

For those who do not know, Portal is a puzzle game where players have to solve challenges given certain components in the environment that they are in.

Somebody has created a "Teaching with Portal" lesson plans (found here)

I am not a teacher yet as I am still in college, but I thought it was interesting. Has anyone tried it, if so I'm curious to see how it worked for you and your students?

What are people's thoughts on this in general?

 

[Andy Resnick]

So I have found this awesome resource called 'Teaching with Portal"<snip>
What are people's thoughts on this in general?

My comment is the same for this as it is for all virtual labs: these are not replacements for real labs. One does not 'design experiments' in virtual labs, one is constrained by the code, which is at best an imperfect simulacrum of the real world.

 

[Valence]

Hmm...

Like what Andy just said, a virtual lab is constrained by code.

Now, something that would be much more useful would be creating/ using physics simulations with Source, the game engine that Portal runs on. Again, it would still be restricted by code, but it least you wouldn’t exactly be restricted to a puzzle-based story game with set-pieces.

 

[micromass]

I don't want to be negative, but I don't like teaching stuff about the real world like physics by using something that obviously doesn't exist and that gives rise to certain paradoxes easily.

 

[Valence]

I don't want to be negative, but I don't like teaching stuff about the real world like physics by using something that obviously doesn't exist and that gives rise to certain paradoxes easily.

Hence why Andy and I said that it's restricted by code: Code can't accurately display certain physics concepts due to it being just code, not actual, physical objects.