This update is a follow-up to my previous update, in which I discussed the benefits and limitations of gamification. 

Game-based learning, referred to as learning games in the suggested topics list for week 2, is the use or design of games as a vehicle for learning. Instead of adding game-like elements to more traditional learning methods, or designing an app to teach a particular skill using gaming conventions, game-based learning involves a more traditional, often commercial game in which players are able to use their explorations of the game environment to develop real-world knowledge and skills.

 "Multimodal learning" is a broad brush that can be used to describe a great many teaching methods or educational environments that are not especially revolutionary. Games are no exception: Confucius was promoting the educational merits of learning Weiqi (Go) thousands of years ago.^[1] One example of a game that really captures a fundamentally new approach to science education is Kerbal Space Program. 

Orbital mechanics is a difficult thing for humans to develop intuitions about, because it deals with situations that we never face ourselves in in daily life, and that evolution hasn't equipped us to deal with. The normal method, for curious people and aspiring rocket scientists, is through math. Although not particularly complicated, those who don't enjoy or have a lot of experience with math (such as the author of this update) are unlikely to ever sit down and work out all of the implications of Newtonian mechanics to orbiting bodies.

The beauty of Kerbal Space Program is that, while intended largely as a simulation game for space nerds, has realistic enough physics that all of the bizarre quirks of orbital mechanics are central to the game. It's impossible to make progress, for example, unless you both intuitively and intellectually understand that hitting the accelerator in space actually makes you slow down. The flight data from your rockets, as well as the responsive gameplay that causes explosions when you steer incorrectly, helps players quickly develop accurate intuitions, and then calls upon them to use the intuitions to guide them in making more detailed calculations. As a third mode of input, the many online tutorials available for the game end up–through no special intention of the authors–being incredibly entertaining physics lectures:

Going back to the original point, the reason that orbital mechanics is so strange to our minds is that we don't usually get to spend time in an environment where these rules hold. What helps make multimodal learning such a useful device in this case is that Kerbal is able to provide such an environment, and to do it in a funny and entertaining way.