Learning Innovation Festival 2023 - Dawn of the Duck Evolution Experience
Professor Norman Li<br>School of Social Sciences<br><br><p>Dawn of the Ducks is a single-player game and simulation developed for the Evolutionary Psychology course to teach concepts of evolution</p><p>The game is broken up into 2 parts<br></p><ul><li>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.</li><li>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.</li><li> 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. </li></ul>