The Evolution Experience

View Here

Introduction
In Evolution Experience, students play as a bird eating insects. As the bird, the user must eat a certain number of beetles each year to survive, as the bird grows, it must eat more and more beetles in order to survive to reproduce. There are two varieties of beetle: one green (which camouflages into the grass) and one blue (which does not camouflage into the grass).

In doing this, students can then see how natural selection acts on the different beetle phenotypes, affecting their distribution from one year  to the next. There are also links on the side that act to further students' knowledge of natural selection.


Instructions






To play the game, students click on beetles to eat them, and a certain amount must be eaten each year for the bird to survive and breed.























Over time the ratio of blue to green beetles changes, and if you've eaten all the blue beetles it becomes harder to find food.



















The ratio is graphed as you go along so you can see how the beetle species changes over time.














Students will be required to explain what is happening to the beetle population, and the impact of the bird's feeding habits on the beetle population, as well as the impact the change in beetle colour ratios has on the bird (and would have on the bird species as a whole).

Because of the level of complexity that could be drawn from this activity (in terms of class discussion, application of knowledge etc. this activity is probably more applicable to a stage 6 class than a stage 5 class, however, a less detailed analysis could be used and the simulation given to a stage 5 class.


Outcomes Covered 

Stage 5
LW4 The theory of evolution by natural selection explains the diversity of living things and is supported by a range of scientific evidence. (ACSSU185)
a. describe scientific evidence that present-day organisms have evolved from organisms in the past
c. explain, using examples, how natural selection relates to changes in a population
WS4 Students question and predict by:
b. predicting outcomes based on observations and scientific knowledge

Stage 6
7.1.2.2.1 P2 applies the processes that are used to test and validate models, theories and laws of science, with particular emphasis on first-hand investigations in biology
7.1.10.2.1 P10 identifies and describes the evidence for evolution

8.5.2.2.1 discuss examples of variation between members of a species
8.5.2.2.2 identify the relationship between variation within a species and the chances of survival of species when environmental change occurs
8.5.4.2.3 explain the need to maintain biodiversity