Launchball and the National Curriculum

Launchball is a really fun and motivating way to support and reinforce learning throughout your science scheme of work (see Launchball Educators' Guide).

For KS2, it supports students’ investigative skills and introduces and reinforces concepts related to electricity, forces and motion, light and materials and their properties.

For KS3, it supports scientific thinking, practical and enquiry skills and critical understanding of evidence as well as reinforcing concepts related to energy, electricity and forces.

By working through a game level your students are developing the science skills of experimentation, problem-solving, questioning and investigation. To effectively solve each of the challenges they face they will be using the scientific model of observation, hypothesis, prediction, testing and conclusion.

For example, in the U-bend level (in the 'Sneaky') section, this might work as follows:

Observation: Push Test and see what happens – the ball is attracted to the magnet.
Hypothesis: The attraction of the magnet is stronger than the effects of gravity so something else is needed to push the ball downwards. Prediction: If a fan blows down on the ball it will push it downwards, away from the magnetic attraction. Testing: Press Test and see if that happens. Conclusion: The force of the fan was more powerful than the force of the magnetic attraction.

This model can then be used for the next challenge in the game, i.e. how to get the ball up the vertical shaft to the goal.

There are 29 preset game levels along with countless others that you and your students can build in the ‘Create your own’ area. To help you easily link particular game levels with your schemes of work here are three games for each theme that you can use with students across a range of abilities:

Light

Nice and simple: 'Lights and mirrors' (in Warm up)
A bit more tricky: 'Mirror mirror' (In Sneaky - can be done with just two mirrors)
Pretty challenging: 'Reflect perfect' (in Crafty)

Materials:

Nice and simple: 'Fire and ice' (in Crafty)
A bit more tricky: 'The hairdryer' (in Sneaky)
Pretty challenging: 'Beat the gate' (in Crafty)

Forces & Motion

Nice and simple: 'Bomb chamber' (in Tricky)
A bit more tricky: 'Flying bounce' (in Tricky)
Pretty challenging: 'It’s a breeze' (in Crafty)

Energy transfer

Nice and simple: 'In hot water' (in Tricky)
A bit more tricky: 'The train' (in Tricky)
Pretty challenging: 'A bridge too far' (in Sneaky)

Electricity & Magnetism

Nice and simple: 'Rubber soul' (in Tricky)
A bit more tricky: 'Switch bounce' (in Tricky)
Pretty challenging: 'Dream machine' (in Crafty)