Monday, October 15, 2012

Darwin: Who Wants to Live a Million Years?

http://science.discovery.com/interactives/literacy/darwin/darwin.html

18 comments:

Weston said...

I thought that this was a fun game. It was fun seeing how the animals would survive depending on their traits. I noticed that Ms. Ghazarian was saying that plants adapt, but I found it interesting that the animals didn't. All in all, I thought it was a fun survival game.

Finn said...

it was really hard at first, but I finally got it. It wasn't really like earth would be because the mutations were random, and you didnt know what was coming up next

Anonymous said...

Sophia said,
I think this game was in a way dumb. It may have showed how animals stayed alive but in the real world things aren't that fast and confusing. I thought it was confusing and strange.

Nicholas said...

That game was pointless, but kind of fun. I agree with Weston. Why can't Animals can't make adaptations like plans can? Or maybe even people. That is what the game was saying, but I don't 100% believe that. Many animals' DNA is very similar to ours. For example, humans adjust to weather, light or dark, and a lot of other things. For plants, I know they can be very cool, but it is surprising they can make adadptations that animals can't. This game also didn't do everything. I was out of life preservers when it was sunny, and the fat guys didn't die. It was a fun game, but not really a helpful game.

Bryan said...

I though it was a good game. I wouldn't say that is was the most awesome game I ever played, but I also wouldn't say that it was the worst. I was cool how you could see how your creature could survive in any weather or climate. Although, it was a little bit confusing how you could help your creature you could survive. Every time I would press life saver, there was no difference so I pressed it a gain then it said that I didn't survive. Overall it was an okay game, think it could have had more depth.

Ian said...

It is very sad how I can get addicted to a lame game like this, but after playing this for an hour (and winning 46 times) I noticed some things that other people hadn't. First of all, Weston and Nick said that they wouldn't adapt to their surroundings. If you really payed attention to the game and played it lots of times, you would notice that the animals do change according to their surroundings. If you had good enough animals to survive the winter, you would realize that their fur coats got bigger. The adaptations were small, but they made the difference. Bryan, If you read what Charles Darwin says (isn't he the guy who wrote the Darwin Awards? Because the Darwin awards are the stupidest deaths) he tells you the flaws of your animals and how you could better suit them for survival.

I assume all of this happens In real life, but I'm really not sure. I also really agree with Sophia. THIS GAME NEEDS MORE. MORE LEARNING, MORE TIME!!! Getting through a million years shouldn't take one minute!

Chris said...

I really liked this game and made a species that survived. I was confused why they didn't have the same species every time I played it. I liked how they had the predator, fruits, cold, and the heat. I made a furry animal with long legs and spikes. The spikes scared off the predator, the long legs help them get fruits, and the fur helped them survive the cold.

Natasha said...

I thought the game was a little hard at first like Finn said, but also interesting. It reminded me of the adaptations that plants have to make in different environments. I found it a bit odd that it seemed harder for animals to adapt to certain places than plants can. The game needed more time and different types of levels. Anyway, if I could make one change to this one it would be to change the game. It was pretty lame according to me and Ian. All in all, I thought it was an ok subject.

Grace C. said...

I agree with Natasha. I do not understand how this relates to science because all you do is change the mutations to make it adapt to the situation. That situation might not always occur, so I think that it is kind of useless. I also agree with Ian. This game is not that educational and it doesn't really teach me anything. It was really lame over all.

Emilynne said...

I thought that this game wasn't bad. True, it does move faster than the real world, and the mutations are random, but I think that is so you don't have to wait and wait for the game to finally be fun. Also, if you go down there are comments on the game. I saw something on one of the comments that made me think. It's hard to win this game (and please no one start attacking me about that). What if it doesn't only teach about natural selection, but also tries to tell people that changes in the enviroment can make animals die off. I'm pretty sure I don't need to mention global warming (which I have had every single time I play this). Hey, it wasn't too bad, but the graphics could be better.

Ben said...

I really loved the game because we had to choose different characteristics to help our creatures live and survive in the different environments. I really like the game.

Eleya said... said...

I think this game was really interesting. I realize that in the real world the climates probably might not change that fast therefore making it easier for animals to survive. I thought the game was a little hard at first, but once you got used to seeing the adaptions and knew how to make their lives last 1 million years It was really fun. I liked trying to create different animals to survive the heat and the cold. I also liked trying to find what happened in the game but never would of happened in real life.

Sabina said...

I think that the game was okay. I know it is important to learn about survival and all, but as Emilynne said, the species were completely random. I don't think that this is what happens in the real world. I'm not saying that the game was bad, but I think that it could have been more advanced. I think that it was fun and you had to choose your species wisely so that they could survive in the environment. Overall I think that the game was fun, but slightly unrealistic.

Andrew said...

I thought that this was a good game overall. I was kind of pointless. It could have been a lot better. I thought they should have made Darwin speak instead of him saying random gibberish.

Ethan said...

Ethan said,
I thought this was a really fun game. It was cool to learn how the traits of the animals would make them survive. I didn't do really good at first but then I started to get it, and my last time trying I did it. I really liked this game and I hope we can get more of the games like these on the blog.

Finn said...

But Andrew he kinda needed to speak gibberish because Charles Darwin is dead, so they wouldn't brink him back to life again for him to talk in a game

Finn said...

I didn't get how they didn't have the furry ones with the Elvis Presly hair? because those were supposed to save us in the winter.

Ian said...

Finn, if you use the mutation thing and get some very furry animals, they will genetically mutate and make the giant fur coats and the "Elvis Presly" hair