Angry Birds is doing everything these days. Literally everything, from theme parks to movies and books. Now it's partnering with CERN, that would be the CERN where the Higgs Boson may have been discovered and where the World Wide Web was created, incidentally, in a learning program dubbed Angry Birds Playground.The program is aimed at three- to eight-year-old kids and is designed to spur interest in education and learning, in this case, in quantum physics.
Yes, really, Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, and CERN want to teach kids quantum physics via Angry Birds. Most adults don't understand quantum physics, most of those that say they do actually don't, so getting kids to learn it is maybe a tall order.
Then again, it's probably about time we (humans) got around to understanding something that's been around for 100 years now, as CERN's head of education, Rolf Landua, put it.
"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," he said.
The two sites will work together on learning material, first some books and even a board game. They wouldn't even be the first Angry Birds books, that honor falls to the Bad Piggies Egg Recipes cookbook app.
Still, we'll have to wait and see what the two are working on. Rovio plans to expand the Playground program, so you can expect more partnerships like this in the future.
"Rovio and Angry Birds Playground make learning fun," Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio's Mighty Eagle and best known public face, said.
"When you’re really interested, you can learn anything. With Playground products, kids can have fun and learn more about physics than they would’ve in the 'old-fashioned' style of learning. I’ve been to CERN and experienced it myself. It’s a fun place to visit!," he added.