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Social-Media Algorithm Simulator

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Grades 6-860-75 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Teams hand-simulate a simplified content-ranking algorithm, watching how small rules about engagement can snowball into unintended outcomes like an echo chamber.

Budget levels

Amazon prices checked Oct 9-10, 2026 and may change

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Quick Start

Digital downloads only.

$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.

Student time: one class period, one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one class period on a single day.

Scale back: Fit it into a shorter period, use fewer effects, or run a demo instead of a build.

Scale up: Add one extra effect, or spread the share-out across another day.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

  • timerBorrow or school hasuse what you have
  • graph paperBorrow or school hasuse what you have

Full Experience

Required materials for the class.

$13.19 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one school day.

Scale back: Fit the build into one period with fewer effects.

Scale up: Spread the work across days, or add more effects.

  • Colored paper bug cards (green, brown, white)Required1 x 50 sheets + 1 x 50 sheets + 1 x 50 sheets50 sheets + 50 sheets + 50 sheets$5.11 + $3.99 + $4.09AmazonAmazonAmazon
  • green and brown background sheetsRequired1 x 50 sheets + 1 x 50 sheets50 sheets + 50 sheets$5.11 + $3.99AmazonAmazon

Total Transformation

The bigger kit, with every optional item included.

$13.19 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day (one session, one-day event).

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one session, a one-day event.

Scale back: Shorten the event, or run a demo for a smaller audience.

Scale up: Spread the build and the event across days, or invite a bigger audience.

Choose your version

Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Student time: 35 min, one class periodTeacher prep / build-ahead: 10 min$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.One table or a clear section of floorBeginner-friendly

Setup

Print or hand-copy the essential prompt for Social-Media Algorithm Simulator, then set out only paper, pencils, and the common or recycled items needed for one test. Use a tabletop representation whenever the original version mentions a room, specialized device, or digital tool; the learning comes from the decisions and evidence, not elaborate scenery.

Activity

  1. Define the central success test in Social-Media Algorithm Simulator and make a paper planning sheet for the inputs, actions, and expected result.
  2. Represent the system without electronics by using labeled cards, paper controls, tokens, a ruler, or a student acting as the device; follow the same cause-and-effect rules described in the project.
  3. Run at least three cases, including one difficult or unexpected case, and record input examples, operating rules, predicted outputs, and actual outputs.
  4. Revise one rule, layout, mechanism, or decision after the failed case, repeat it, and explain with the recorded evidence whether the change worked.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

Done when: The group has completed Social-Media Algorithm Simulator when it can present the round-by-round results and propose one rule change that would reduce the unintended effect and point to the observation, measurement, comparison, or trial that supports its conclusion.

Materials

index cards representing posts, poker chips as engagement points, poster board, markers; Colored paper bug cards (green, brown, white); green and brown background sheets; timer; graph paper

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change.

As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Steps

  1. Hook: a feed algorithm keeps showing more of what gets clicked. Predict whether nature works the same way when an environment favors certain traits.
  2. Set up a population of 40 paper bug cards in three colors (for example 14 green, 13 brown, 13 white) and a background sheet that represents an environment, such as a green leaf habitat.
  3. Run generation 1: a predator student picks off 10 bugs that are easiest to see in 15 seconds. Survivors each reproduce by adding one card of the same color.
  4. Record the number and percentage of each color after every generation in a data table, for at least 5 generations.
  5. Graph the percentage of each trait over generations, then change the environment (switch to a brown background) and run 3 more generations to see a trait decrease and another increase.
  6. Use the math to explain natural selection: which trait increased, by what percent per generation, and why. Compare it to how a click rule snowballs one type of content in a feed.
  7. Present the graphs and an explanation that cites the percentages, plus one way the comparison to an algorithm breaks down (organisms do not choose their traits).

Standards mapped

  • NGSS · MS-LS4-6

    Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.