This exercise introduces students to the Avida-ED interface, the basic logic of working with digital organisms, and the expectation that they will gather evidence rather than just click through screens.
Learning goals
- become comfortable with the main app environment
- identify what students are observing when populations change over time
- begin recording observations and forming explanations from evidence
Suggested use
Use this first when students have not worked with Avida-ED before.
What students do
- launch Avida-ED 4 and identify the control panels for instructions, experiment settings, and analysis
- observe how random mutation introduces variation in the digital organisms
- write down the settings, what you observe, and what the patterns suggest
Step-by-step flow
- Run a baseline experiment with the default world/minimal mutation rate so students know what a “stable” run looks like.
- Record how many organisms reproduce, how the trait histogram or spectra change, and what evidence supports an explanatory story.
- Turn on mutation (or increase it) for the same number of steps and compare how the population behaves when variation enters through random mutation.
- Discuss: what changed, what stayed the same, and what did the evidence suggest about mutation as a source of heritable variation?
Legacy lab-book framing
In the legacy lab book this exercise was titled The Introduction of Genetic Variation by Random Mutation and served as the beginning of the recommended multi-exercise sequence.
Supporting materials
- Exercise 1 PDF
- Legacy explainer video by Mike Wiser is hosted on MSU MediaSpace and should
be treated via transcript-first migration; the URL is
https://mediaspace.msu.edu/media/Exercise+1+Explained+by+Mike+Wiser/1_snm2noyl.
Estimated time
One class period is usually the minimum reasonable slot for orientation, observation, and discussion.