Evolution Works
Software for Science Education
Summary
Students will learn that when a succesfull organism is placed in a new environment, its population will grow exponentially until the environment's carrying capacity has been met. At that point, the population will remain stable within an environment. Students will understand that different environments have different carrying capacities, and that organisms compete for limited resources.
Implementation
Teacher: Pick a student to create a graph on the chalk (or dry erase) board. Label the X axis with "number of turns," and the Y axis with "population." Load up Evolution Works and choose "Jungle" from the scenario menu. Place a single organism in the world (50 search, 50 gather and 50 reproduction).
To Students: How do you think the population will grow as the turns advance? Would a few volunteers like to predict what the graph will look like? (Have a few students try to draw the graph).
Teacher: Have the student at the board mark the first point on the graph (a dot at 1 on the Y axis (population), and 0 on the X axis (number of turns). Start pressing the advance 100 button one click at a time. Record each data point on the graph. As you move along, ask students to predict what will happen next. After 1000-1500 turns, your graph should display exponential growth with a leveling off towards the end.
Actual Data from the Jungle Simulation
