West Van robotics students turn to virtual worlds for engineering challenges

Inside a giant ship that’s just taken off from the planet’s surface, the pilot looks down on a mountain valley below. It’s dotted with small trees, and glacier-covered peaks loom in the distance.

As the ship flies down the valley, another flying craft comes into view, thrusters firing. The two ships head back to a small glacial lake, where the second space ship descends, slowly, on to its frozen surface.

The video, which includes being in the middle of a realistic world, might feel familiar to teenaged gamers.

This virtual world is one with a difference though – both the environment and all of the components, including the spaceships, have been created on a special online platform by students of the West Vancouver school district’s robotics academy.

Unlike a typical video game, the Space Engineers platform allows students to set their own objectives, and then figure out ways to work towards that.

“It’s a very technical game,” computer engineer vs computer science, the robotics teacher who has turned to the online platform to keep students engaged in problem solving in the virtual world.