The Sorceress of Circuits: A Steampunk Electricity Adventure (Ages 10-12)

A choose-your-path story that teaches electricity through puzzles

This is an interactive story designed to teach the physics of electricity to kids ages 10-12. It's playable on laptops and desktop computers. It’s a single HTML file you download and open in your browser.

Once you download it, you can play it on as many devices as you'd like. You don't have to log in to Gumroad to play.

If you have any questions, email me (Sarah) any time at SarahAllenPhysics at gmail. And if it’s not a good fit for any reason, I’m happy to offer a full refund.

I made this story game to help my students understand the abstract concepts underpinning electric circuits. I got my physics degree from the University of Washington with honors, I have a master's in cognition and learning from Columbia where I studied physics misconceptions, and I spent over 20 years tutoring math and physics 1-on-1. So I know which ideas trip people (and me :)) up!

In the story, you play an adventurer who comes across a castle that is under attack. The sorceress who runs the castle is missing, leaving her two apprentices in charge. You help them defend the castle, fix the security systems, and then repair an airship and go on a rescue mission.

As you read through the story, you encounter challenges and puzzles which slowly and intuitively build an understanding of electricity.

Kids who are experienced readers can read through it on their own. For younger kids, you might want to read it aloud to them.

It's designed to make learning a really fun and safe experience, so mistakes are always fixable, something to learn from rather than something the game penalizes you for.

No outside physics knowledge necessary. The game teaches you everything you need to know, and it's designed so that for kids who are curious there's more to learn and explore, but kids who just want to "win" the game can do so while learning the fundamentals, without needing to read long explanations.

The story has 7 chapters and takes about an hour to read through. You can save your progress and come back later, too.

Concepts covered:

• Positive and Negative Charge

• Conductors and Insulators

• Current, Voltage, and Resistance

• Simple Circuits with Batteries and Bulbs

• Parallel and Series Circuits

• Lemon Batteries, Potato Batteries, and Pickle Light Bulbs!

Testimonials:

"An absolutely brilliant game! Really fun to play, very captivating storyline - and the fact that my daughter learned (and retained) so much about electricity and circuits was amazing to me! I was very impressed with the graphics too. Overall, a wonderful idea fantastically executed!" - Parent Review of The Sorceress of Circuits

"I LOVE IT It is brilliant the cations are cute so are the sorceress's robots are really cute and I liked the pickle power and lemon power its a grate story and it is BRILLIANT." - Elim (Age 12)

You can read more about me (Sarah) and my work on my website: www.MathwithSarah.com