The Patterns and Processes of Historical Biogeography

This is an ambitious deep-dive into the mechanisms that drive the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity through geological time.

Activity time: 3 hrs (This could be split among several classes. Also to keep in classtime below 3 hrs, a ‘how-to-play’ videos must be assigned as homework.  Double the time if playing the game twice).
Game: Bios: Megafauna
Associated materials:
  paper-‘What really is Evolution?’, paper- “On the causes of mass extinctions”, paper- ‘Historical Biogeography: Evolution in Time and Space’, Homework/Discussion Outline

Activity:

  1. Assign and discuss primary literature that matches the learning objectives (see above for suggestions).
  2. Play Bios: Megafauna by the publisher’s rules.
  3. Consider playing it again. This will increase comprehension and demonstrates how cosmic and biosphere events dramatically change the game outcomes.
  4. After finishing, use homework questions as an outline to lead a  discussion.  We also recommend assigning them as homework.  Using them as a framework for discussion allows a freer, more organic exploration of the learning objectives and their ties to the gameplay. The homework promotes deeper self-reflection on all the questions. Really- that is it.
(Image credit: The Innocent)