| Title | Salmon Run |
| Presenter(s) | Diane Blackwood, Jacob Cousineau, Sara Hugentobler, Samantha Johns, David Karlavage, Kayleigh Manchester, Eli Mcardle, Robin Miller, Ben Person, Aaron Yama, Wesley Elsberry, Tony Gendreau, Mariah Meek, Robert Pennock |
| Session | Conference Reception, Game Exhibition, and Poster Session |
| Time | Wednesday, October 12, 7:00p-9:30p |
| Location | MSU Union Ballroom |
| Format | Game Exhibition |
| Screenshot |  |
| Description | Salmon Run is an educational game aimed at teaching scientific concepts to middle and high school students. Students learn general principles of ecology, population genetics, evolutionary biology, and environmental management in the context of salmon biology. Game play is a variation on tower defense games; players can deploy anglers, rangers, dams, and fish ladders, all of which change the ability of salmon to run upriver to spawn. A non-player-deployed tower, a sea lion, will appear a few turns after placement of a dam & fish ladder. Turns correspond to a lifecycle, and each turn covers adult salmon returning to river spawning grounds. Good tuning of numbers of towers allows students to find where "maximum sustainable yield" of salmon occurs. Bad tuning... well, it is relatively easy to make the salmon population go extinct. Our game prototype has been tested in 8th grade science classes to teach about the effects of selective pressure on changes in the distribution of size of the adult salmon, as well as skills of data collection and charting to help the students see the effects of selective pressure. |
