I want to utilize a learning experience that I had in high school. In high school physics, we spent the semester learning our core concepts, while also building small cars that we would race at the end of the term. This project allowed us to incorporate the lessons we had into a practical hands on activity. 

For the learning model, we are going to use gamification today; a model that "leverages game elements to enhance the learning experience" (UMGC, 2024d). We'll look to have elements such as a tournament (competition), weekly/biweekly trials, rankings based off trials, as well as a reward system for winning the tournament. 

• The scenario: Students will be tasked with designing and building a small, battery powered vehicle as a team. Students will be responsible for all design aspects; including but not limited to shape of the vehicle, weight of the vehicle, placement of components on the vehicle (wheels, battery pack), and any other determinations. Students should consider concepts such as friction, weight distribution, circuits, and aerodynamics that they have experienced throughout the semester.

• The tournament: At the end of the term, the students will be tasked with racing each other with their created cars. This will be the final assessment for the cars they have created and will determine the true winner of the project. Each race will be run three times to determine a fair winner.

• Weekly/Biweekly trials: Students will have these trials to begin testing their vehicles against one another and learning from successes and failures of their own, and their peers. These trials will allow for a leaderboard to be created to establish rankings. Rankings will ultimate dictate which cars compete against each other in the final tournament. For the trials, races will be determined by drawings. Winning or losing in the trials will not guarantee more access to any parts or design, it will only affect the rankings for the final races.

• Rewards: Rewards largely depend on the size of the class and the type of class: rewards can be something as simple as a pizza lunch for the winners or potentially skipping the final exam (if applicable) or can be represented by trophies/ribbons. We'll use ribbons in this scenario so it is more translatable. A gold ribbon, silver ribbon, and bronze ribbon will be distributed to the winning teams.

The biweekly trials will be part of the utilization of formative assessment. These trials will be important for the students to see what might work and what doesn't work while racing their peers. The stakes for these trials will be low, as the only reward is rankings to decide the tournament bracket, so this will hopefully drive friendly competition and creativity. They will receive real-time feedback and guidance on proposed changes. After the trials, each team will be asked to reflect on their results and on other trials.

Students will not just be testing their cars every two weeks or at the end of the term, they will be designing and testing throughout the term. Teams can make changes and test their car to see the change in action, though they will not be racing another car. They will be provided with any guidance or feedback on the consequences of design changes or offered the core concepts to consider when determining the changes. Especially important during this time would be evaluating if a core concept seems to be understood well by the class through the implementation and thought in design and readdressing the concept or being able to continue with instruction (UMGC, 2024c). 

At the end of the term, the students will be asked to race their cars in a tournament. Tournament bracket rankings will be determined by previous trial results, teams will be seeded and assigned their opponents accordingly. Re-seeding will occur after the completion of each phase until the final race. Each race will occur three times to ensure fairness, and time given to make repairs to the car if needed but no design changes. This race will be a culmination of their learning over the term and will showcase their growth in physics as they have taken their learnings and applied them to this car (UMGC, 2024a). They will have overcome obstacles observed in the trials and either made corrections or not.

They will also need to share a design document for their vehicle, detailing their choices and explaining specific choices they make and why they benefited or hurt their car. This will serve as part explanation and part reflection as it will come after the races take place. They can inform the instructor why the car ultimately failed or why it succeeded, and what they learned.

Behaviorism is the easiest learning theory to directly connect to this scenario. With the usage of the trial system to produce the rankings for the tournament and the tournament/rewards, you have a system that is rewarding the student to learn. In a past article for this class, gamification was used as a possible way to utilize behaviorism in learning design  (Arshavskiy, 2020). 

I'd also like to think that the teaching of this is from a constructivist standpoint. In this scenario, the Zone of Proximal Development is important. The instructor has to act more or less as a more knowledgeable other to provide guidance and feedback to the student/team for their car and design. Without the instructor's guidance, the students would not be able to reach their highest potential for learning. The students are actively learning within this scenario, observing their own cars and their peers and learning from them. There is real-world application since they can imitate and take inspiration from car designs in their life and learn why these work or why they might not be practical. Students are also working in teams, so they will be have the collaboration and social aspect that is important in constructivism and be able to assist each other in their learning (UMGC, 2024b).