Colliding Asteroids to Learn About the Moon

Have you ever wanted to design your own while learning about it in the process? There currently exists such a game. It's called "Selene: A Lunar Construction GaME." This game allows users to learn about our own moon's formation while constructing their own moons. As humans living on this planet, the moon is one of our few glimpses at a celestial body using only the naked eye.

Many people who look at the moon are still at a loss, however, to understand what the darker spots or grooves on it are. When playing this game, the user is able to see how these different aspects of the moon have formed and what they are.

Developers of the game have designed it to consist of two parts. The first part deals with causing asteroids of different make-up to collide to form a moon. If too much force is used in this process, no moon will be created. In this way, the game teaches users what combinations of size, density, radiation, and the like are necessary in the formation of such a body. The game shows how the gravity of the moon being created can pull other pieces toward it. This helps to familiarize users with the concept of accretion.

The second part of the game deals with the moon's surface and how the grooves, cracks, craters, etc are formed on it. The moon starts out with a smooth surface and the user is able to shoot asteroids toward it or allow lava to break through its crust. For the entirety of the game, the user is given information relating their moon to the Earth's moon. This allows for a more interactive way to learn about that great white sphere in the sky that so many of us find ourselves in the dark about.

Debbie Denise Reese, lead investigator when it comes to the project Cyberlearning through Game-Based, Metaphor Enhanced Learning Objectives, or CyGaMEs, makes it clear that the game is designed to be used by anyone of any age. At the same time, she maintains that youth in middle school find it more appealing than others. This style of learning seems to be more attractive to them than older students.

SPACE Photo by : CyGaMEs Selene