A Proposal to Teach 3D Vector Operations in a Role-Playing Game

Abstract: In the college the authors work for, the students ’ achievement in linear algebra has been lower than the ones of other fields in mathematics. We suspect that one of the major reasons is rote learning of our students in linear algebra. Many students try just to memorize the formulas and solutions for certain problems expected at the examination but do not think about the mechanism nor relations to graphical objects, and forget the isolated knowledge in a short period. The lack of actual applications has worsen the situation. To improve this, we have introduced some graphical explanations of vector operations in 2D and 3D space with the help of dynamic graphic software. Each explanation appealed to some students but not to the others. We still need to develop an explanation that appeals to the majority of our students. In this paper, we propose a role-playing game as a start-up application for 3D vector operations. We expect it helps our students to feel the reality in 3D vector space and to relate 3D graphic objects to the symbolic representations later in their lessons