Games for physics teaching

Forming Teams

Form two teams with the same number of players in each and at least 2 players per team. The game works with any number of players in each team, but from experience, the game is best used when we have up to 4 players per team, and the best is 3 per team. Define which team will be the team BLUE (Team Newton) and which team will be RED (Team Einstein).

Each team will choose one of its members to be the MASTER of the team and the others will be PLAYERS.

What will you need

2 devices with internet access. Preferably, with a screen large enough for all players to accompany the screen.

I usually work with a notebook and a projector, configuring so that the computer screen is different from the projector screen (split screen). The screen of the notebook can only be seen by the masters. The projector should be visible to all players, including the master.

Setting up a game

On each screen open a browser, the game works in any browser compatible with html5, and go to the game page:

• Spies – Words
• Spies – Pictures

You will come across the screen below. First, you must choose a code, a password of up to 8 characters that blend letters and numbers. In the two screens, you will enter the same code, this is the guarantee that the two screens will be identical. Then on the screen of the masters, you will choose the master option and on the player’s screen the players option. If you are playing the version with words, you will still be able to choose from which area of physics the words will be presented.

The masters of both teams will look at the masters screen (picture below) and the players on the other screen. The words/pictures of each team are in the color of the corresponding team. DONE! The game can begin.

How to play

At the top of the screen is indicated:

• The game code
• Who starts the game
• And how many words/pictures are left for each player to win. Note that whoever starts out will always have one more word/image.

Once it is defined who starts, the master should give a clue (see later how to give clues) that indicates which words/images are from your team. After that, the players of the team should try to find out which words/images correspond to the clue given by the master.

At this moment, the master can not manifest himself in any way. Not even to say that was what he had thought. Some hits can happen by luck and if the master manifests it will be an indirect hint.

Players must click on the word/image when they are sure that the word/image corresponds to the given clue. When they click on the word/image it will change color and be replaced by a drawing. After this, 3 things can happen:

1. If the image is the color of the team you are playing, it can continue to guess the next one, up to the limit defined by the clue;
2. If the image is the color of the other team or beige (a student suffering at the time of the test), the team loses the turn and moves to the other team. When a team hits an enemy agent, it will be helping the other team, so they should be cautious;
3. If the image is a black skull, the team automatically loses the game. Be careful not to tip the killer. For the masters the word/image representing the killer is in gray

The game continues to alternate teams until one of them has discovered all the agents (words/images).

Giving the Clues

The clue is always composed of 2 elements: a word, concept or personality (related to physics) and a number. The clue should respect some rules:

1. The clue should have only one word or, in case of concept, the name of the concept as “Newton’s Third Law”. In case of name, the name can be complete, like “Albert Einstein” or “Nikolas Tesla”;
2. In the Words version, the hint cannot be a word that is visible. If a word has left the game, now it can be said.

The number is related to how many words/pictures in the game are related to the clue you gave.

For example: Among your team’s words are “Mass” and “Acceleration”. The two are related by Newton’s second law and in the force calculation equation, so you give the hint “Force 2”.

Attention: the master can not point to the screen and can not say anything other than the clue he is giving. In addition, it should not show any reaction to the hit or miss.

Players may try to guess up to a word more than the number that was said by the master. Therefore, in the previous example, players can try to guess up to 3 words/pictures. This allows them to try to hit words/pictures from previous clues.