Allosaur Survival Game
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HideThis resource received an Accept or Accept with minor revisions rating from a Panel Peer Review process
These materials were reviewed using face-to-face NSF-style review panel of geoscience and geoscience education experts to review groups of resources addressing a single theme. Panelists wrote reviews that addressed the criteria:
- scientific accuracy and currency
- usability and
- pedagogical effectiveness
- Accept
- Accept with minor revisions
- Accept with major revisions, or
- Reject.
Following the panel meetings, the conveners wrote summaries of the panel discussion for each resource; these were transmitted to the creator, along with anonymous versions of the reviews. Relatively few resources were accepted as is. In most cases, the majority of the resources were either designated as 1) Reject or 2) Accept with major revisions. Resources were most often rejected for their lack of completeness to be used in a classroom or they contained scientific inaccuracies.
This material is replicated on a number of sites as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service Project
Learning Goals
- How much energy it takes to keep a large animal alive or a small one growing
- The differences in the fauna present in different habitats
- Natural hazards animals face (like quicksand)
- How dangerous other allosaurs are!
Context for Use
Teaching Materials
Teaching Notes and Tips
Instructors may wish to have the students play the game outside of class and ask them questions about the challenges of dinosaur growth and survival.
In general, this is a game where players have to think in order to win. However, they are unlikely to click on "Fact File" button next to the "Attack" button, which is good because all the "Fact File" button does is pause the game. The only other flaw that I can think of is that the small fauna (between insects and little dinosaurs) are all reptiles, no mammals.
