Using mobile technology to increase children’s understanding of evolution
Evolution can be a tricky subject to explain to a child.
But when boiled down to its simplest meaning – living things change over time – evolution seems less perplexing and we can begin to open up a discussion with kids. After all, evolution is a cornerstone of the life sciences, and kids that have a general grasp of the subject are better prepared to learn about life on our planet.
Together with Dr. David Reznick of the University of California, Riverside, we built an iPad app, website, and videos that show the story of evolution as told by the guppy fish. Reznick, having conducted years of research on the guppy, was one of the first to discover that evolution can occur much faster than suggested by the fossil record. When shown how guppies can change over the course of several generations, evolution seems less confusing and children can begin to understand how living creatures change over time.
Evolution isn’t usually taught in the classroom until late in high school, and sometimes not at all. Many experts think we should be teaching our children the basic premise of evolution much sooner than that. Our goal was to provide a resource parents could use to begin introducing their children to the beauty and connectedness of life on Earth through a simple story: that of the humble guppy fish.
There aren’t many resources that expose children to basic evolutionary concepts. We wanted to help change that.
The Guppy Guppy Evolution app, website, and videos are some of the few digital resources aimed at teaching the evolutionary process to young kids. It is our hope that they will serve as a launching point for parents to begin to discuss evolution and the beauty of life on Earth with their children. Focus group testing with 5 and 6 year-olds revealed that children demonstrated high engagement with the app and learned new words related to evolution. You can learn more and download the app at the Guppy Guppy Evolution website.
