Quantum Conundrum isn't a game designed for group play, and there is no way for educators to track or assess students' progress. It may end up best deployed as an extracurricular assignment for individual students with an interest in and knack for solving physical problems. Alternatively, students could tackle specific puzzles in small groups, with the person playing pausing to listen to and take suggestions from others.Continue reading Show less
Presented in a first-person perspective, Quantum Conundrum tells the story of a kid who explores a vast mansion filled with strange puzzles. The disembodied voice of his slightly deranged uncle -- who provides help and cracks the occasional joke -- is his only company. As he makes his way through the giant house, he learns how to switch between dimensions that alter the properties of objects in the physical world, making them lighter or heavier than they might otherwise be, slowing down time, and even reversing gravity. This ability is key in solving the many conundrums he encounters, which typically require players to manipulate the environment in strange ways in order to make their way to each room's exit.
Quantum Conundrum lets students apply their understanding of real physical laws and gives them the power to bend these laws to their will in order to solve virtual puzzles. They'll need to first examine and understand the problem -- which could be as simple as figuring out a way to depress a pressure plate without being there to stand on it -- then work out how to use the abilities at their disposal to create a solution. It can take a good deal of trial and error, and it encourages kids to think outside the box and come up with clever answers.
While kids spend a lot of time doing things in this game that simply cannot be done in the real world, Quantum Conundrum will get them thinking about how physical laws work, and perhaps even how they might be manipulated and exploited within the real world in order to solve problems related to science, technology, and engineering. It's imaginative play rooted in an understanding of the world around them.
Key Standards Supported
Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.