Featured Projects
Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working on a variety of innovative projects in STEM education. Below, you’ll find a selection of recent projects that showcase my work across different fields and platforms.
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The Astronomy of Hogwarts Legacy
As an astronomy professor, I’m always searching for accurate depictions of the night sky in media.
My recent research into Hogwarts Legacy reveals how the game’s developers have crafted an immersive world, replicating celestial phenomena with surprising accuracy.
From real constellations to accurate planetary motion, the attention to detail is unlike anything I've seen in any other game.
Despite a few creative liberties, the game’s alignment with real-world astronomy sets it apart from most media representations of the sky.
Fortnite Physics Playground
Video games make awesome laboratories, offering players the ability to bend the laws of reality as they explore life-sized experiments.
I’ve been exploring Fortnite as a tool for science education. With support from a generous Epic Games MegaGrant, my students and I developed a series of playable Fortnite experiments and associated teaching materials.
The culmination of this work is the Fortnite Physics Playground, where students can extract physics data directly from the game engine as they design and perform their own experiments.
Learn Build Win
In the summer of 2024, I partnered with Kent District Library to develop educational programs that leverage gaming technology to inspire young people to explore new career paths, enhance their technical skills, and increasing engagement with the library's services.
One of the first projects we launched was the Fortnite Creative Design Challenge. In this contest students were challenged to create a new sporting event in Fortnite Creative.
The contest began in late May and concluded in early August. The top entries were featured in our online Gold Medal Ceremony.
NASA Education & Outreach Projects
I've had the incredible opportunity to work on a range of educational projects with NASA, bringing space science to life for students around the world.
My journey began with NASA Headquarters, working on the No Boundaries contest. I then collaborated with NASA's Teaching from Space Office at JSC, where I helped develop physics demonstrations for astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Working with the Hubble Space Telescope team, I developed tools for students to create their own color pictures from real Hubble data. And, most recently, I worked with the James Webb Space Telescope team on a project where students develop solutions to real-world problems facing NASA engineers.
Google Glass Explorer & STEMbite
As a Google Glass Explorer, I was invited to teach a live physics lesson from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, giving students a first-person view of the world’s most advanced particle accelerator.
This journey led me to the TEDxCERN stage, where I joined Steve Myers, Director of Accelerators and Technology at CERN, to discuss the future of education and technology.
The experience was unforgettable and deepened my passion for blending technology & science education.
Inspired by this, I launched my YouTube channel, STEMbite, where I create engaging, bite-sized science lessons from a unique first-person perspective.
TED-Ed: The Moon Illusion
I submitted a video concept to TED-Ed, the makers of these fabulous animated lessons. To my surprise and excitement, they selected my idea to create a video on the perplexing “moon illusion” – the phenomenon in which the moon appears larger when it is rising/setting than when it is overhead.
The first step in the process was to write a script, then the TED-Ed team selected an animator who created a storyboard version of the video before producing the finished product.
The animators and the TED-Ed team did such an awesome job turning this concept into an amazing piece of educational artwork. I’m super excited that I was able to be a part of the creative process. Enjoy the video here: The Moon Illusion - Andrew Vanden Heuvel.
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