To help your birds survive, you must capture the right butterflies before lunchtime! Have fun in this interactive STEM game while learning about Batesian mimicry. Test your knowledge with in-game questions. Save the screen for your teachers.
Objectives
Upon completion of this game, players will:
- Understand that there is variability in the traits (appearances) of individual animals within a species.
- Understand how variability in traits affects the ability of individual animals to survive and reproduce.
- Understand how within-species variation makes it possible for a species to evolve via natural selection.
- Via play, figure out how natural selection can bring about wing pattern changes in successive generations of particular species of butterflies.
- Students are reminded to figure out why the butterflies become harder to catch with each level.
- Understand that each level of play represents changes over many generations.
- Understand that the butterflies do not have the will, or intent to change.
- Interact with a bar chart to make predictions about ongoing species survivability (population dynamics).
Teacher Guide
Gameplay: 8 minutes
System Requirements
Optimized for WebGL enabled browsers Chrome and Firefox.
Collaboration
Inspired by the movie, Amazon Adventure.
Licensing Information
Disclaimer
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1423655. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
