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The authors examine technology-driven games--especially active gaming--as an evolving form of children's play. They offer an overview of play and its developmental benefits, describe the literature on the emergence of technology-driven play, and reflect on the diminishment of physical play in contemporary culture. They suggest that active gaming, which they describe in detail, not only meets the research-based definition of play, but also may fill the role of traditional play whose growing absence has left behind a vacuum.

The aims of this study were firstly to determine the players' perceptions of their respective coaches' coaching effectiveness and secondly, determine the difference between big and small schools of the players' perceptions of their respective coaches' coaching effectiveness. Four hundred and seventy six players from 22 schools were asked to fill in the adapted version of the CES (coaching efficacy scale) (Feltz, Chase, Moritz, & Sullivan, 1999). The CES consists of four subscales measuring motivation (seven items), game strategy (seven items), technique (six items) and character building (four items). Each item was rated in a 9-point Likert scale from 0 ("Not at all effective") to 9 ("Extremely effective"). According to the descriptive statistics, players perceive their respective coaches to perform average and below average on the four tested constructs. There are also no practical significant differences between the perceptions of big and small schools players on the effectiveness of their respective coaches. The results of the study might determine and clarify whether volunteer coaches in high schools are effective according to their athletes' perceptions and may also help schools to evaluate their coaches and implement programs to develop more effective coaches. (Contains 3 figures.)

Information technologies have reshaped teaching and learning in schools, but often not in ways anticipated by technology proponents. This paper proposes a contrast between technologies for learning and technologies for learners to explain how technologies influence teaching and learning in and out of schools. Schools have made significant use of assessment and instructional technologies that help promote learning for all students, whereas technologies for learners, such as mobile devices, video games, and social networking sites, are typically excluded from school contexts. The paper considers how these contrasting models of technology use will come to shape schools and learning in a pluralistic society.

A close look at the educational literature reveals both negative perceptions among peer assessment participants and evidence that peer assessment may not as effective as generally thought. An analysis of peer assessment using game theory is proposed and examined. This examination helps to explain the aforementioned lack of effectiveness and negative perceptions. The resulting model suggests interventions that may mitigate these negative perceptions and lead to an increase in peer assessment effectiveness.

This paper explores the perceptions and experiences of women academics in the UK, participating in a small-scale qualitative study exploring career progression and encountered institutional obstacles. The accounts are considered in terms of both disadvantageous institutional strategies and interpersonal ones governing day-to-day working relationships. The findings contribute to a growing body of international research on gender constructions in the academy, where both inhibiting and exclusionary barriers are examined in focus group discussions (FGDs) in terms of gendered constructions that are perceived to impact upon the career opportunities of women academics. Analysis of data encouraged the employment of a ludic construction in this critical exploration of games playing and 'gamesmanship' (a masculinised term); these being themes raised in the FGDs as representing blocks and challenges to women's academic careers.

The valuable insights of game theory sometimes remain out of reach for students who are overwhelmed by the subject's complexity. Comic book applications of game theory, with superheroes as players, can facilitate enthusiasm and classroom interaction to enhance the learning of game theory. Drawing from content in superhero movies and books, the authors construct games to illustrate pure-strategy Nash equilibrium, Bayes-Nash equilibrium, mixed strategies, sub-game perfection, and perfect Bayesian equilibrium. To help instructors build students' skills in finding and interpreting game solutions, they translate comic book scenarios into specific game forms; however, not all scenarios are obvious so they suggest instructors help students develop their own game-theoretic judgments to determine what game forms, payoffs, and solution concepts might be appropriate for understanding a situation.

"Gamification", a strategy whereby video game logics are applied to real world tasks, is rapidly gaining traction in education discourses, policies, and practices. Gamification advocates are frequently and prominently declaring the practice "the future of education" or education for the 21st century (Deardorff 2015; Frith 2017; Oxford Analytica 2016). Others are more skeptical of the power and effectiveness of the approach (Bogost 2011; Robertson 2010). Yet for all the celebration, critique, and debate around gamification, the question of the political logics underpinning gamification as pedagogy is rarely discussed. This article explores those politics. The authors challenge the assumption that gamification is a politically neutral practice and argue that it must be understood as a product, and embodiment, of a very specific set of cultural and political circumstances and values surrounding the knowledge economy. In staging this argument, the authors hope to demonstrate how and why the debate around gamification needs to be expanded from a discussion of its efficacy and terminology, to incorporate a political reading of its ideological effects.

Purpose: The occupational socialization literature suggests that teaching-oriented teachers are more likely to deliver Sport Education (SE) in its purest form and so provide conditions in which fair play and sporting behavior can be developed. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which Derrick, a teaching-oriented preservice teacher, promoted moral and sporting behavior while teaching 38 middle school boys within two SE seasons of team handball. Method: The theoretical perspectives employed were structural development theory and social learning theory. Data were collected with eight qualitative methods and analyzed with standard interpretive techniques. Results: Many of the students gained a more sophisticated understanding of fair play and sporting behavior during the study. On numerous occasions, students were observed playing fairly and acting in a sporting manner. Derrick's teaching orientation, his own concept of sporting behavior and fair play, his delivery of a pure version of SE, and his pedagogy had much to do with these positive outcomes. However, many of the more skilled students' willingness to engage in sporting behavior was context specific. As gameplay became more competitive, some of these more skilled students engaged in more unsporting behaviors. Conversely, many of the less skilled students maintained a universal concept of sporting behavior and fair play when the competition became fiercer. Conclusion: The results of the study confirm that the pure form of the SE model is an excellent medium through which sporting behavior and fair play can be developed.

This study compared physical activity levels of junior high school physical education students participating in coeducational and same-sex PE classes that followed the Tactical Games Model. A total of 446 students, aged 11 to 16 years old, enrolled in the seventh to ninth grades from one junior high school participated. Each student participated in four team sport units while wearing an accelerometer. All lessons followed the Tactical Games instructional model. Four three-way between-subjects analyses of variance were conducted as a method of evaluating the effect of gender, class setting, and grade on PE students' PA levels for each sport unit. There was not a significant difference in PA for males by setting or sport unit. During the volleyball, flag football, and soccer unit, there was a nonsignificant difference between female students in the same-sex setting and between female and male students in the coeducational setting for percentage of time spent in MVPA. Results suggest setting does not affect MVPA time of males but does affect that of females depending on sport. Results also suggest that males spend more time in MVPA than females regardless of setting and sport unit.

Escape rooms are "live-action team-based games where players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal (usually escaping from the room) in a limited amount of time." Escape Rooms are one type of Escape Game, which are narrative-based challenges that use puzzles, tasks, and a time limit, but may be table-based paper puzzles (such as a Puzzle Hunt) or a group activity to get a locked box open (such as Breakout Boxes). Escape Games are a type of Live-Action Game, which are Scott Nicholson Professor of Game Design and Development, Wilfrid Laurier University games where the player and the in-game avatar the player controls are the same thing. Rather than controlling something on a board or screen, players in Live-Action Games engage directly with the game world. This article discusses the benefits of using escape games in a classroom, provides three examples of different types of escape games, and explains how to avoid superficial educational game design.

Gamification uses game elements such as quests, challenges, levels, and rewards to motivate and engage students in the classroom. Given the engagement that students feel during gameplay, it is sensible to include elements of game design to motivate students and create a space for comprehensive vocabulary instruction. Designing a gamified vocabulary curriculum begins with clear learning goals, a careful selection of key terms, and the transformation of activities into quest challenges. This article shares how to design a gamified vocabulary curriculum to scaffold higher order thinking skills. Snapshots and examples of vocabulary gamification, along with suggestions for everyday practice, are included and aligned to the levels of Bloom's taxonomy. A discussion on how gamification supports student autonomy and mastery learning in a goal-oriented environment is provided.

Multidisciplinary models of education are needed to prepare students for their role in a global work environment. Combined with this need is the reality of the new Millennial Generation entering the educational system with a different approach to learning. This paper introduces an interactive, educational engineering game designed to appeal to the Millennial Generation's learning preferences. "Shortfall" is a prototype board game with a team approach and a trial and error methodology to introduce students to environmentally benign manufacturing in the supply chain using the automobile industry as a model. After playing the game, quantitative analysis showed that on average, students gained new knowledge and a changed perception of their confidence in their answers. Qualitative analysis of data demonstrated that students felt the game also helped them with the teamwork/communication aspects of supply chain. Future plans involve converting the game to a computer format to streamline its effectiveness for multi-institutional participation.

Knowledge brokering is a promising practice for addressing the challenge of using research evidence, including evaluation findings, in policy implementation. For public policy practitioners, it means playing the role of an intermediary who steers the flow of knowledge between producers (researchers) and users (decision makers). It requires a set of specific skills that can be learnt most effectively by experience. The article explains how to develop knowledge brokering skills through experiential learning in a risk-free environment. It reports on the application of an innovative learning method--a game-based workshop. The article introduces the conceptual framework for designing game-based learning. Then, it demonstrates how this framework was applied in practice of teaching knowledge brokering. In conclusion, article discusses the first lessons of game application in training public policy practitioners. It concludes that game-based workshop is a promising method for learning about knowledge brokering strategies that increase evaluation use.

Science and technology, when applied to educational excellence, have become part of the arts and humanities of tomorrow. The interactive multimedia technology tools available to educators today provide an opportunity to build into the distance or traditional course through learning objects, highly interactive experiential exercises that allow the instructor and the student to obtain an accurate image of the student's level of understanding of the content throughout the course. The instructor can not only determine that a student does not understand some aspect of the content of the course, but may also determine exactly what part of the content the student fails to comprehend. Of more importance is the fact that students may also get an immediate and accurate map of their own mastery of the content. To create absorbing and successful traditional, blended, and online classes, a broader cooperative design structure that is as much art as technology is required. In this paper the concepts involved in the creation of course materials, through a cooperative partnership between Indiana University, ITT Educational Services, Inc. (the parent company for the 93 ITT Technical Institutes across the United States), Pearson Learning Solutions, and Arjuna Multimedia, are explored. They have resulted in a technological teaching environment in which sophisticated interactive computer technology may be incorporated into any classroom or distance course to provide the most effective learning experience. These techniques apply equally well in courses in arts and humanities and science and technology. Such tools as virtual worlds, laboratory simulations, game theory-based exercises, artificial intelligence systems, and intelligent tutors have been applied to several hundred courses in 17 countries with excellent results. The focus of this paper is on the pedagogical approaches considered and utilized in these cooperative course production partnerships.

In this article, we provide the results of our examination of the range of multiliteracy activities that engage boys' time and attention, and the types of literacy skills and understandings they learn through their engagement with alternative texts. We focus particularly on video game play and creation/composition as a learning activity that consumes a great deal of their out-of-school time. Our observations and conversations with adolescent boys suggest that significant, powerful learning is happening through video game play and creation, and calls into question claims that boys are not succeeding at literacy, instead suggesting the potential for critical engagement with new literacies.

The ability to anticipate the strategic actions of hackers, including where, when, and how they might attack, and their tactics for evading detection, is a valuable skill for cybersecurity. Therefore, developing the strategic reasoning abilities of cybersecurity students is an important cybersecurity education learning objective. This paper proposes that basic game theory concepts should be taught to cybersecurity students in order to improve their strategic reasoning abilities. It details a pretest-posttest educational experiment that demonstrates that 2 h of basic game theory instruction results in a statistically significant improvement in students' abilities to anticipate the strategic actions of others. It also provides details of the game theory curriculum to help other cybersecurity educators replicate these results. Additionally, this paper suggests that another benefit of teaching game theory in a cybersecurity course is that it may fundamentally alter the way students view the practice of cybersecurity, helping to sensitize them to the human adversary element inherent in cybersecurity in addition to technology-focused best practices. This could result in a more naturally strategic-minded, and therefore better equipped, cybersecurity workforce.

Interest in gamification in higher education has been growing steadily in the past decade. Using games and game elements has been shown to increase student engagement, motivation, and autonomy. This article draws parallels between game elements, instructional design, and the teaching of business and professional communication. It suggests ways that teachers can incorporate game elements into their courses (or perhaps identifies ways in which readers are already doing so without realizing it). The article concludes with an example of how game elements are used in the design of an introductory business communication course.

With concussion rates on the rise for football players, there is a need for further research to increase skills and decrease injuries. Behavioral skills training is effective in teaching a wide variety of skills but has yet to be studied in the sports setting. We evaluated behavioral skills training to teach safer tackling techniques to six participants from a Pop Warner football team. Safer tackling techniques increased during practice and generalized to games for the two participants who had opportunities to tackle in games.

This article describes how to play two abstract strategy board games: (1) "Blokus" which uses polyominoes--plane geometric figures formed by joining one or more equal squares edge to edge; and (2) "Gemblo" which uses translucent, colored pieces, each of which is made up of one to five hexagons.

This paper brings together general principles for teaching inquiry across disciplines with those generally employed in mathematics classrooms. It describes some broad principles of teaching inquiry to first-year writing students and shows how these can be employed in the context of a course on game theory in popular culture. Although undergraduate mathematics may seem miles away from undergraduate writing, especially in first-year courses, we show how common educational practices in inquiry-based mathematics courses are easily adapted to teaching a writing course and how these pedagogical methods can be used to encourage students to develop habits of inquiry.

In this paper, we derive the result of the classical gambler's ruin problem using elementary linear algebra. Moreover, the pedagogical advantage of the derivation is briefly discussed.

Integrating micro-credentialing into employee training programs offers libraries an innovative and individualized way to recognize and certify learning and achievement. Digital badges provide a low-cost initiative to support learning benefiting both the individual and institution, offering evidence of skill development that transcends the library and contributes to a student's professional skill set. The micro-credentialing program piloted at the Eckerd College Library showcases the integration of digital badges into the student employee training program. Interactive activities engage students beyond the initial training session and encourage advanced skill acquisition throughout the student's tenure, contributing to the development of marketable professional skills.

In this article I explore some of the underlying mathematics of Poke´mon battles and describe ways that teachers at the secondary level could explore concepts of mathematical game theory in this context. I discuss various ways of representing and analyzing a Poke´mon battle using game theory and conclude with an example of applying concepts of expected value and solving systems of linear equations to find a mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium.

This article is written in the first-person, from the perspective of Steven Canning, a SUNY Potsdam instructor of educational technology and part-time professional gamer, with contributions from Anthony Betrus, Professor of Educational Technology at SUNY Potsdam. The author delves deeply into the world of professional online gaming, or eSports, and tells his story while referencing his experiences with the game "Tribes: Ascend." The article highlights the cultural elements and implications of eSports, as well as discusses the hardware and peripherals necessary to compete, particularly at the professional digital gaming level.

There exists considerable and rich literature on students' misconceptions about probability; less attention has been paid to the development of students' probabilistic thinking in the classroom. Grounded in an analysis of the literature, this article offers a lesson sequence for developing students' probabilistic understanding. In particular, a context familiar to teachers--exploring compound events that occur in a game of chance--is presented, and it is demonstrated how the context can be used to explore the relationship between experimental and theoretical probabilities in a classroom setting. The approach integrates both the content and the language of probability and is grounded in socio-cultural theory.

Online teaching allows students to discuss their work and learn from varied media, gain nonhomogenous perspectives through global collaboration, and tackle challenging, relevant, real-world problems. In this article, the author describes ways that real-world applications encourage student exploration, how nonhomogenous perspectives challenge the ways students analyze ideas, and how students drive collaborative projects in creative ways, using examples from his own classroom.

Many game-based learning (GBL) researchers working in K-12 educational settings have supported the incorporation of gaming technologies into classroom practice, but little has been communicated about the effect of incorporating GBL into practicing K-12 educators' professional development. This review is a critical appraisal of the quantity and scope of knowledge published on this topic to answer two questions: to what extent does research support incorporating GBL into K-12 staff development sessions to improve practicing teacher perceptions of the value of GBL; and, to what extent does research support incorporating GBL into K-12 staff development sessions as a method of increasing the adoption of GBL in the classroom? Current themes in GBL research with practicing teachers are presented. The author suggests that, while this is a valued line of study that many scholars insist be expanded, the directions in which it has proceeded thus far are very limited in scope.

This paper is about performance assessment in serious games. We conceive serious gaming as a process of player-lead decision taking. Starting from combinatorics and item-response theory we provide an analytical model that makes explicit to what extent observed player performances (decisions) are blurred by chance processes (guessing behaviors). We found large effects both theoretically and practically. In two existing serious games random guess scores were found to explain up to 41 of total scores. Monte Carlo simulation of random game play confirmed the substantial impact of randomness on performance. For valid performance assessments, be it in-game or post-game, the effects of randomness should be included to produce re-calibrated scores that can reasonably be interpreted as the players' achievements.

The authors explore how framing theory and the method of frame-reflective discourse analysis provide foundations for the emerging discipline of serious games (SGs) research. Starting with Wittgenstein's language game and Berger and Luckmann's social constructivist view on science, the authors demonstrate why a definitional or taxonomic approach to SGs is problematic and unfruitful. Using Goffman's frame analysis as an alternative, they construct four frames, with sample illustrations, demonstrating the different ways in which the utility of games for society, business and politics is considered. These are SGs as: (1) tool (therapy, drug), (2) innovation (economic utility), (3) persuasion (idea, belief) and (4) self-organization (complexity). The frames are based upon different values and perceive different impacts of games in society, business and politics. The authors discuss the implications of their approach.

This study introduces the concept of microgames to support situated learning in order to foster situational awareness (SA) of planners in seaport container terminals. In today's complex working environments, it is often difficult to develop the required level of understanding of a given situation, described as situational awareness. A container terminal represents an important, complex node in the multimodal transportation of goods. Many operations have to be planned in order to ensure a high performance of the whole system. To evaluate the relation between SA and planning task performance, the authors conducted tests with 142 participants. They evaluated the role of SA in integrated planning activities, and the playability and usefulness of the microgame. In conclusion, the authors can state that SA is very conducive to integrated planning tasks in container terminal operations. The microgame approach allows for an enjoyable game activity, while providing a meaningful situated learning experience towards SA.

This paper documents how a unit of student-designed games can create a more meaningful version of physical education (PE) for disengaged students, a version that enhances the educational legitimacy of the subject matter by affording it worth in and of itself rather than being justified for other, extrinsic or instrumental reasons. Furthermore, it seeks to develop new knowledge relating to the conduct of game instruction within PE, by using Suits' theory of games. Drawing on Suits' theory, we develop a conceptual model that is intended to represent the hierarchical processes that occur in gameplay through student-designed games. This model is then tested via examination of the experiences of a cohort of teachers and their year 10 students from a mixed secondary school in the greater London area. From our discussions with the students, it is argued that the key focus of the games that these students were used to playing was the need to "play the game well". By contrast, we suggest that it is possible to provide more meaningful experiences to students if a more philosophically driven and less efficiency-driven approach to games is taken, following Suits' lead more closely. By exploring the loop between and around lusory means, lusory goals and constitutive rules (the aspects of Suits' theory that have been shown to represent student-designed games), students engage with a more meaningful games experience than simply playing the game well. This "new" approach to games may offer counterbalance to the ideological tendencies now emphasized in countries and contexts that celebrate instrumental outcomes of performative PE and sport rather than affording worth in and of itself to the curriculum's subject matter.

This article explores using game theory in social studies classrooms as a heuristic to aid students in understanding strategic decision making. The authors provide examples of several simple games teachers can use. Next, we address how to help students design their own simple (2 × 2) games.

Serious games and game-based learning have received increased attention in recent years as an adjunct to teaching and learning material. This has been well echoed in the literature with numerous articles on the use of games and game theory in education. Despite this, no policy for the incorporation of serious games in education exists to date. This review paper draws from the literature to provide guideline recommendations that would help educators and policymakers in making the first step towards this.

Goalball, a sport designed for those with visual impairments, is a competitive and recreational sport enjoyed by athletes around the world. Students with and without visual impairments can experience positive outcomes when teachers appropriately include a goalball unit as part of their inclusive secondary physical education curriculum. This article aims to help teachers identify these outcomes through strategies that encourage student success and appreciation for the sport. A framework to implement a goalball unit is provided along with strategies to target skill, tactical and game-play development.

The purpose of this article is to share three questioning methods that can be employed as part of a game-centered approach (GCA). These methods are (1) the debate of ideas, (2) the GROW model and (3) the reflective toss. Through these three methods it is hoped that teachers and coaches at the upper-elementary and middle and high school levels will be able to transition to a questioning approach and, in the process, develop their pedagogical content knowledge, which is a key requirement of using a GCA. The article also demonstrates how the teacher or coach becoming a co-participant in learning within a GCA empowers learners to take responsibility for their own learning.

Promoting student engagement for all students in physical education, and specifically in game play, is a challenge faced by many middle and high school physical education teachers. Often, the games we play in physical education are not "good games" because, as early as middle school, some students are already resistant to playing specific games due to differences in skill level, experience, interests and histories with the games (e.g., "I always lose and you always win in badminton"). Students who are not appropriately challenged may get bored or they may get frustrated and ultimately become disengaged. This article will highlight two fundamental ways in which secondary physical educators can transform students' experiences during game play by a) designing modified games called adaptation games and by b) fostering the development of tactical decision-making competence during adaptation game play. This integration will be explored through the example of a badminton adaptation game called Hit and Touch Baseline. The simple tools discussed in this article allow students to engage in good game play and help the teacher to design game play experiences that foster student engagement and success.

This article provides an examination of interrelationships among educational technology, creativity, and chess. It presents the argument that chess training fosters significant gains in scholastic achievement and cognitive ability. As a vital component in chess training programs, contemporary chess software such as Fritz serves as impressive educational technology that can teach and monitor chess training as well as provide opportunities to practice chess, to diagnose errors, and to assess chess performance. Creativity is highly valued in the international chess community at the levels of chess moves, sequences of chess moves, and entire chess games. The artificial intelligence component of contemporary chess software is so formidable that such software can identify many creative chess moves, but not all. Chess is a domain where artificial intelligence encroaches onto the realm of creativity.

Individual gameplay interest is affected by numerous factors and a competition setting is also of importance as there are factors that need to be managed. To understand the motivational variables related to an educational game competition, this study explored the interrelatedness between self-efficacy, competitive anxiety, and gameplay interest in a one-on-one Chinese idiom string up game competition. Effective data from 278 elementary school students from grades five to six were collected and subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results of this study showed that the higher the level of competitive anxiety, the lower the degree of gameplay interest (i.e. "Like", "Enjoyment", and "Engagement"). In addition, self-efficacy in learning Chinese idioms was negatively associated with competitive anxiety. The implication of this study contributed towards understanding that low competitive anxiety is more facilitative to interest in gameplay. The results also suggested that enhancing self-efficacy in a specific task can eliminate anxiety and support players' interests to play the game in a competitive setting.

Drawing on ecological and dialogical perspectives on language and cognition, this exploratory case study examines how vocabulary learning occurs during a quest-play mediated in English between a Japanese undergraduate student and a native speaker of English. Understanding embodiment as coaction between the player-avatar and player-player relations (Zheng and Newgarden 2012; Zheng et al. 2012), as situative embodiment in a perceptually and narratively rich context (Barab et al. in "Sci Educ" 91:750-782, 2007), and as a dialogical achievement (Zheng and Newgarden 2012; Zheng et al. 2012), this research provides an alternative explanation of how players embodied in their avatars appropriated semiotic resources imbued in World of Warcraft (WOW). Two hours of co-quest play provided instances of vocabulary learning unique to the WOW environment and co-play. Through iterative multimodal analysis, vocabulary learning became salient as we analyzed both chat and avatar action data and provided a thick description and dynamic process of co-play. Using the eco-dialogical model, we display how language learning as appropriation of resources and as result of eco-dialogical embodiment.

Halfway through the 2015 AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, game officials discovered that the Patriots were using underinflated footballs on their offensive snaps. A controversy ensued because the Patriots had actually supplied these balls to the game's referee just hours before kickoff. Athletes and physicists have since agreed that using underinflated footballs gives several unfair advantages to the offensive team. Media outlets have focused their attention on two possible culprits behind the deflationary debacle: either the Patriots had intentionally "underinflated" their supply of footballs, or the climatic conditions, coupled with the various impacts to which the balls were subjected during the course of the game, had somehow altered the internal air pressure of the balls. This controversy soon became known as "Deflategate" (the moniker makes an obvious connection to the 1970s "Watergate" scandal). The purpose of this article is to bring Deflategate into the laboratory activities of high school and undergraduate introductory physics courses. First, we provide some background information on the actual 2015 AFC Championship game and subsequent media blitz surrounding the controversy. When used in an introductory mechanics class, this information can help students contextualize Deflategate as a real-word application of the material they are learning. Next, we recast the spotlight on Deflategate from its current focus, the ideal gas law, to a new one--namely, the physics of a bouncing ball. We then use this scenario as a motivation for a fun but informative set of experiments that can be carried out using equipment already in most high school or college laboratories. The subsequent data analysis relies on three basic principles: projectile motion, conservation of energy, and linear impulse/momentum. The analysis showcases the application of introductory physics to the world of sports, brings current events into the classroom, and demonstrates how multiple problem-solving strategies can be used to examine different aspects of a single event. Finally, some experimental results are presented and discussed.

Since 1950, the Prisoner's Dilemma has intrigued economists and amused fans of mathematics. It presents a situation in which two players acting to their own advantage do not do as well together as two players whose actions oppose their individual interests--hence, the dilemma. Variations of the Prisoner's Dilemma have appeared in diverse circumstances, from television police dramas to analysis of political negotiations. Along with the scenarios presented here, we consider settings from the movie "The Dark Knight" (2008), students' take-home exams, and the Tragedy of the Commons in additional examples in an online supplement.

This study developed a game simulation based on problem solving in the management of urban waste. We then investigated the factors affecting the decisions made by players. During gameplay, the players sought to guide the development of a city via management strategies involving a balance of economic growth and environmental protection. Nature served as an anonymous recipient of the pollution caused by the actions of players. Within a very limited time period, the players had to determine the degree to which they could conserve nature, learn the limits of growth, and develop insight into the dynamic operations necessary to manage a clean city. It was found that the 34 Taiwanese undergraduate students valued economic growth highly and were willing to sacrifice nature for the sake of progress. In contrast, 35 students from Taiwanese elementary schools tended to strive for a balance between conserving nature and promoting economic growth through the building of sustainable houses that produce less pollution. However, this led to an inappropriate allocation of resources, embodying a self-interested ethos. This game taught players about the costs associated with waste processing as well as the values of fairness and reciprocity, particularly with regard to resource utilization and solid-waste management.