Spore!

I've put this post off for far too long but I guess I keep hoping that someone at Electronic Arts/Maxis would respond to my several emails, but alas I guess it is not to be.

Spore is a very exciting upcoming game due to be released in the Spring of 2008. I am not going to delve into the game play, you can read that on the Spore website or on the previous Wikipedia link, but I am going to say that as a former Biology teacher I could not be more excited about the possibilities of using this game in class to teach the basics of the theory of evolution.

Now I do not really want to get into the validity of evolution(I definitely do not want to open that can of worms here) but it is a teaching objective identified by state and national science standards and most Biology textbooks are written on the underlying principle that it evolution exists - so why not take students to the computer lab, have them play the game , THEN talk about the processes involved as speciation occurs without ever mentioning the word evolution? Personally, I say its awesome.

Now not all aspects of game play are suitable for the Biology classroom, but the later game scenarios could be used in Social Studies and Geography, right?

Let me know what you think :)