Evolution Games for Kids
Evolution is a scientific principle stating that organisms adapt to their surroundings over time, changing themselves to increase the likelihood of species survival. This concept, while seemingly mundane, has been the topic of great debate for years. Arguments rage on over whether students should be taught that evolution is a scientific fact. In many schools, this concept, controversial or not, is a part of the science curriculum. To help students wrap their heads around this difficult principle, teachers can integrate evolution themed games into their lessons.
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Evolution Squared
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Players have the opportunity to embody a fictional animal that evolves and moves from the bottom of the food chain to the top in this interactive game. The game starts as the small creature hatches from an egg deep in the ocean. To win the game, players must navigate their creature from ocean bottom to dry land, eating the food necessary for survival along the way. As the creature eats more and travels further on its journey, it evolves and adapts to its new environment. This relatively simple game keeps students engaged while imparting basic evolutionary knowledge.
The Evolution Experience
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Players explore the impact that evolution plays on species survival in this National History Museum game. Participants in the game take on the role of a baby bird who must eat bugs for survival. In each round, the player is presented with a field of bugs. Participants must click on the bugs to eat them, eating as many as they can before the year timer ends. In the beginning, the bugs are easily spotted, as they are bright blue against the dark green grass. As the years pass, the bugs evolve, changing color to an ever darkening green hue, allowing them to blend in with the grass and increasing the difficulty of successfully eating the requisite number of bugs before time expires. This game presents an intriguing challenge to students, and allows them to easily see how evolution has an impact not only on the species that evolves, but also on the other species that depend on the evolving organism as a food source.
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Evolution
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In this bug-centered game, players must help beetles grow, breed and adapt by guiding them through their natural surroundings and helping them find the requisite supplies for survival. The ultimate goal of this game is to produce a super beetle that possesses all of the desirable evolutionary traits. This game requires an extended time commitment, but players can save their games, enabling them to return to them time and time again as they continue on their quest to reach the pinnacle of evolutionary success.
Evolution Lab
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Players have the opportunity to see how evolution promotes the survival of the species in this interactive game. Participants are presented with a fictional group of organisms and allowed to speed up the evolution process to see in several minutes what takes hundreds of years to happen in nature. The game provides step by step explanations of the evolution process, making it a wonderful teaching aid. This game is somewhat complex, so it is best suited to high school students who have some previous experience studying the concept of evolution.
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