Dawn of the Duck - An Evolution Game

 

Project Description

 Dawn of the Ducks is a single-player game and simulation developed for the Evolutionary Psychology course to teach concepts of evolution.

The project is broken up into 2 parts

  • An experiment mode where the students set parameters like life span, mutation rate, body size and agility. The simulation will run with the set parameters until the duck population has died out or a set objective is met.
  • A game mode where the students can make decisions at certain points to influence the evolutionary process of the ducks. Similar to the simulation mode, students set parameters before the game commences. At junctures during the game, students will be asked to select a number of evolved ducks to proceed with the game.
  •  The objective of the project is to allow students to view how an evolutionary process works with or without outside intervention. Through this, students will learn how traits are connected to genes and how new traits arise from random genetic mutations and how traits are shaped through the evolutionary process of selective retention occurring across numerous generations. 

Teaching Strategy

The experiment mode can be run independently by students. There will be a summary screen at the end of the simulation that summarize the population of ducks and the how the parameters that the students set at the beginning influenced this.

The game mode is run in class, where students can compete to see who can achieve the higher score or keep their population alive the longest.

For access to the project, please contact CTE at cte [at] smu.edu.sg

Faculty:

  • Professor Norman Li

Project Type:

Single-player Games/Simulations

School:

SOSS

Pedagogy:

Personalised Learning