Created an evolution game with worksheet
Welcome back to another school year
I created this little evolution game and hope it helps with your lesson on survival of the fittest, reading cladogram, environmental pressures, etc.
I have a worksheet on the website as well for you to print it out for students to follow along as they play this game in a class setting.
Some teacher-led discussion questions to bring up with the kids after they have played a game or two:
1. Natural Selection & Fitness In biology, "fitness" refers to an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in its environment.
- How is an organism's "fitness" defined in the game EvoWorm?
- What is the evolutionary "reward" for being the most fit worm when another worm dies?
>Teacher's note: This game is a simulation, and like all simulation, it's a limited portrayal of the real world, so in the game, fitness is defined solely by the worm's berry count. The living worm with the highest berry count is considered the most fit.
The reward is that when another worm dies, it is reborn as a descendant of this top worm.
2. Heredity & Inheritance
- When a worm is reborn, what specific traits does it inherit from its ancestor?
- How does this mechanic mimic the real-world process of heredity?
>Teacher's note: The reborn worm inherits the ancestor's entire mutation set and berry count. This mimics real-world heredity where successful genetic traits that aid survival are passed down to offspring.
3. Limitation of the Simulation
>Teacher's note: It is important that the students know while mutations can happen in an individual, an individual don't "evolve", a population does. So it is crucial to remind the students that even if a single worm received a new mutation that led to it having its own branch on the evolutionary tree at the end of the match, it does NOT mean that an individual worm has evolved. Instead, tell the students that each worm represents a population of worms.
Let me know if you have questions about the worksheet or about the game itself.
I am hosting the game on a free tier server, and haven't tested this with a high number of players, so it might get laggy if too many people are playing at the same time. If you like this project and would like to contribute to this game's server upgrade, I have a ko-fi link in the website.