SnailRain is science for fun and to carry in your pocket. It is a mobile application developed by researchers from the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo with the aim of disseminating and educating about the functioning of natural selection, Mendel’s laws and the influence of the habitat and its predators on the genotype of a population.
The creation of this game is part of a state research project led by professor Emilio Rolán and professor Antonio Carvajal, both from the CIM-UVigo and the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Immunology. Rolán himself explains that SnailRain “shows how a population of snails adapts to natural selection”, while the habitat in which they live and their genetic configuration condition the probability of survival against the predator. This role of predator who tries to kill snails is played by the player, who eliminates the gastropods with his finger as they fall from the top of the screen simulating different habitats.
One of the pillars of modern science, little explained in secondary education
The professor recalls that his entire academic career has focused “on understanding evolutionary theory, using different model organisms for this”. In recent years, after establishing collaborations with schools and institutes, he has been able to see how “evolutionary theory, one of the pillars of modern science, is practically not explained or is explained incorrectly in the basic education system”. In this sense, he has embarked on the creation of initiatives that allow for improving the dissemination of science among children and adolescents, using new technologies to offer them “something fun but that, collaterally, can have educational value”. Thus SnailRain was born, as one of the results of the project Causes and consequences of the evolution of preference in mate choice in natural populations, a four-year initiative with funding of 128,000 euros, “which is quite a lot for basic science in Spain”. The project, which will end in December 2020, has as its main objective to develop techniques and tools for the study of the character of mate choice and to try to understand how this character evolves, since “mate choice occurs in practically all species, and of course, in ours, as we well know”, points out the professor.
Within the framework of these R&D projects, Emilio Rolán believes that it is increasingly common for the research community to provide a dissemination profile and dedicate a percentage of their research effort to trying to give back to society more directly the contributions it makes to support them in their research goals. In fact, he adds, the typical result of a project of this type is the production of scientific articles, “we published 13 in the first two years in international journals”, but this game represents “a collateral result in the project”.
Camouflage to survive
The aim of the game is for the user to experience in a simplified environment the role of natural selection in adapting the colour of populations to the colour of their habitat, “representing a simplification of how camouflage colouration could evolve”, explains the teacher. The user has to try to capture snails to feed on as they move through their habitat, simulating the process of capturing any visual predator. “Supposedly, snails of the same colour as the background of the habitat should be more difficult to identify and capture, but the predator-user can develop their own capture criteria and, therefore, influence evolution in different ways”.
This is a game for all ages, points out Emilio Rolán, it can be used from the age of 7, “although it is possible that the youngest may not understand some of the underlying biological concepts”. However, the target audience that is sought to be reached is secondary school students, complementing and expanding their knowledge of evolution. Rolán also points out that supervision is not required for the correct use of the game, “but to guarantee the correct understanding of the concepts it works on”, since it aims to provide information with examples about the rules of inheritance, the action of natural selection and its consequences and, in particular, it tries to emulate a selection process in which a camouflage color is set in a certain population with variation for the color. “Simplifying it a bit, the user acts as a potential visual predator who captures the snails that pass by the screen, being supposedly easier with those whose color stands out more against the background than those that have a camouflage coloration”.
The game is available for Android but its developers do not rule out making an iOS version in the future.
New technologies in training
The idea of launching initiatives like this, which try to stimulate the interest of the new generations using new technologies, responds to a global trend. Rolán explains that this happens in all facets, “today you don’t need to resort to records to become famous with a song and, in the same way, a theory class should try to use web and visual resources”. He acknowledges the need for teachers to update themselves, but ends by emphasizing that this must be done “without ever losing sight of the priority objective of any teaching work: teaching complex concepts in the simplest but most precise way possible”.
Source: DUVI
