Rovio and CERN announced today that they are teaming up to use Angry Birds to teach physics to children in Finland. The announcement, made by CERN Director General Rolf Heuer and Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka, came at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.
Rovio also rolled out a new brand, called Angry Birds Playground, which is a learning program for 3 to 8-year olds that is based on the Finnish National Curriculum. The company will be collaborating with “the best partners on the planet” to “make learning fun.” Rovio has also partnered in the past with the National Geographic Society to teach children about cosmology.
“Modern physics has been around for 100 years, but it’s still a mystery to many people. Working together with Rovio, we can teach kids quantum physics by making it fun and easy to understand,” said Rolf Landua, CERN’s head of education. “It’s a great fit for both sides, combining physics and Angry Birds in a fun way. Rovio has a great platform, with a broad reach and highly engaged fans, which makes this collaboration very promising. With Rovio and Angry Birds Playground, we get a great channel to communicate what CERN does,”
When you think about it, the nature of the Angry Birds games and the recently released Bad Piggies does lend itself to teaching physics. From the parabolic arcs followed by the birds as they soar, to the effects of gravity on the pigs and their inventions, there is plenty of physics-related content in Rovio games. Things might get a bit unrealistic with Angry Birds Star Wars, though.