Does anyone have an idea for an ecology or evolution board game?

Question

I have to create a board game for my biology 11 class. It can either be about ecology or evolution. Any ideas at all would be great because I have no idea where to start.

Answer 1

There are several games with themes of evolution, go to an online store and search on Evolution. I did this on http://www.funagain.com/control/main and found 2 games called "Evolution". There is also another game called "Evo", but it is out of print. These may also available from a local game shop, and many stores have open copies of their games so you can play test them.

Or, make up your own game. Here is an idea off the top of my head....

1 - Create a creature, and everyone in the class is one of these creatures (they all start the same). Perhaps make or find pictures of these creatures to hand out. The class can also get into naming them and deciding on their features. For example the Wundtus Fakus (lives on land, eats grass)

2 - Everyone's 'creature' in the class repoduces. Everyone rolls a dice to see if their offspring mutates. If they roll a 6 on the die, they get to roll again on a 'mutation' table.
1 : Can Swim
2 : Can climb
3 : Can dig/burrow
4 : Defenses such as scales or spines
5 : Can eat poisonous plants
6 : Can survive without water
Have the kids draw on the pictures to show how the mutation manifests. Or, have 'cards' or stickers with different manifestations of the mutations they can stick on the picture. For example, 'swim' might be webbed feet or a flat tail.

3 - For the new generation, roll an event die, the outcome determines which creatures or die in that generation.
1 : Nothing happens
2 : Heavy rains (only swimmers/climbers survive)
3 : Drought/no grass (only climbers, burrowers, and poison eaters (who can get at other food sources) and the drought tollerant mutants survive)
4 : Predation (only climbers, burrowers, (who can get away) and those with defenses survive)
Etc...
Anyone who's creature 'died' gets randomly assigned as a decendent of one of the survivors.

4 - Repeat steps 2 and 3 several more times. After several iterations, you should have several different species in the classroom and a fair example of how different species develop and separate from each other.

You would need to play test this and fine tune how it plays, but it gives you the idea.

Answer 2

darth has a great idea...and who knows if all else fails you can call Capt Planet :) Just kidding, what about everyone starting out as amoebias and having to escape from predators, however since amoebas cant fight back once you get all the way around the board youve taken your "evolutionary step" to fish then you can start hunting those that are still in the amoebia stage. but you have to avoid the bigger creatures. I hope you are getting the point by now.
If you die you start out again from the beginning, along the way you are allowed to pick up items to help you defend yourself like intellegence, cunning, camolflage, etc. these can also be used as weapons.

Answer 3

think like this.

First you are in the prehistoric age with cave men. then you have something like 10 expedition points per turn. as you go hunt and conquer more teritories (and the other players as well) you advance let's say in the MediEvil age (i skipped some ages) and there you build you castle or choose to be a thief (in the prehistoric age were animals like mammoth (3 expedition points), dinosaurs(5 expedition points) , hounds(maybe 2 exp points) and others and in the medievil were let's say thieves dogs wolves etc)-and advance in some nano age with robots. (play empire earth for some ideas). and LET UR IMAGINATION WORK!

Answer 4

The Discovery Channel website has a game named "Evolution". It sells for around $35. I think the site is www.shopping/discovery.com and you can take it from there.

Good luck!