Review by Jenny Bristol, Common Sense Education | Updated June 2014

Who Wants to Live a Million Years?

Fast, focused natural selection game encourages experimentation

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • Science
Skills
  • Critical Thinking
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
4–12
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (3 Reviews)
Price:  Free
Platforms:  Linux, Mac, Windows

Take a look inside

5 images
Charles Darwin himself instructs students on how to choose genetic variations in their population.
Learn a bit about how natural selection works before diving into gameplay.
Students must create a population diverse enough to survive predators and other catastrophic events.
Learn some background about Charles Darwin's life.
A glossary helps identify difficult terms.

Pros: Cute graphics and Charles Darwin himself set the scene for a hands-on introduction to natural selection.

Cons: A lack of explanation of results misses an opportunity for deeper learning.

Bottom Line: Gives students a thoroughly interesting and interactive introduction to natural selection, paving the way for deeper study.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Teachers can use Who Wants to Live a Million Years? as an introduction to the concept of natural selection and to Charles Darwin's life and career. Its engaging interface will keep students' interest while they practice pertinent concepts, which can lead to deeper lessons on evolution, genetics, and other biology topics. Teachers will want to follow up with a clarification of what students experience to let the core concepts of natural selection sink in.

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Standards:

Who Wants to Live a Million Years? is a hands-on introduction to the concept of natural selection that allows students to make choices to guide the process. Cute not-seen-in-the-real-world creatures with specific features -- such as long or short legs, long or short necks, fur or no fur, and stripes or no stripes -- make up the potential gene pool. Guided by naturalist Charles Darwin, students choose three creatures with which to begin the natural selection process, in the hope their population will have enough variation to withstand climate change and predators for a million years, establishing a viable lineage over time. During the game, environmental and other disasters occur that guide the evolution of the population and decrease their number. At two points in the game, students can, if they wish, introduce a mutation into the population that will help guide their creatures' evolution during crisis. The game also includes information on Darwin's life, a quiz, and a glossary of useful terms.

A million years pass very quickly in this game, which lasts only a few minutes. Time stops just a few times for students to make decisions about introducing mutations into the gene pool. While the results of those decisions are shown on-screen, little to no explanation or feedback is given on how to improve results for the next time. The hints screen offers a small amount of help, giving pros and cons for each body feature, but there's little context for the information or explanation as to why certain parts of the population didn't survive. Still, students will likely want to play the game several times to experiment with different variation combinations and see if their population will survive to the million-year mark. 

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

The playful tone welcomes students, and the short gameplay with frequent -- but fun! -- failure encourages continued experimentation.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

While not a thorough lesson on natural selection, it's an engaging hands-on introduction. Students will quickly grasp the basics but might crave more interactivity and flexibility.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

The game includes initial instructions and hints to help choose mutations and variations, but there's little explanation of game results.

Common Sense Reviewer
Jenny Bristol Other
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

  • 3-LS4-2

    Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

  • 3-LS4-3

    Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

  • HS-LS4-4

    Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.

  • MS-LS4-4

    Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 3 reviews) (3 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Donna M. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Vista Visions Academy
Vista, CA
With luck and advantageous mutations, a species can live a million years!
Students love it! The game is engaging and students discover it is not easy to live a million years. The environmental changes are random so if a student finds a combination of characteristics that works in one game, it will not necessarily work in the next game. Students can review the basic concepts of Natural Selection on the opening page, which is especially good for low-literacy and ELD populations. They can read about Darwin's life and there is a quiz they can take to check their understanding of concepts. It is assumed students have some knowledge about favorable characteristics needed to survive in a particular environment - there is no explanation about which mutations are advantageous or why a population does not survive. I have used this game both in class and as homework but it needs to be followed up by a discussion of mutations and why they do or do not work in specific environments.
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