Creative Dad CompanyCreative Dad Company
ScienceTechnologyMath

Synthetic Ecosystem Simulator

Log in to save
Grades 6-875-90 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Teams code a simple predator-prey population simulation, then test whether it stays balanced or spirals into extinction and booms.

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

  • Printed real dataset of deer population with rainfall or forage and fawn survival or body weight (15+ years)Printinguse what you have
  • printed lynx-hare graphPrintinguse what you have
  • spreadsheet or graph paperBorrow or school hasuse what you have

Full Experience

Required materials for the class.

$5.99 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.

  • counters or beansRequired1 x 500 chips500 chips$5.99Amazon

Total Transformation

The bigger kit, with every optional item included.

$5.99 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: 45 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 Synthetic Ecosystem 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 Synthetic Ecosystem 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 Synthetic Ecosystem Simulator when it can graph the final population trends and present what change stabilized the ecosystem and point to the observation, measurement, comparison, or trial that supports its conclusion.

Materials

laptop or tablet, free block-based coding app, graph paper, colored counters for predator/prey; Printed real dataset of deer population with rainfall or forage and fawn survival or body weight (15+ years); printed lynx-hare graph; spreadsheet or graph paper; counters or beans

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. Study a real predator-prey graph (such as lynx and hare) and predict how the amount of food available will change animal populations.
  2. Graph the provided real dataset (at least 15 years of deer population counts with rainfall or forage amounts, and average fawn survival or body weight) on the same time axis.
  3. Mark the abundant and scarce resource periods on your graph. Describe the pattern with numbers: how population size and individual condition (body weight or fawn survival) changed in abundant versus scarce years, and how long the population took to respond.
  4. Build a simple hand or spreadsheet simulation with grass (food supply), rabbits, and foxes for comparison, using rules such as each rabbit needs 2 grass units to survive and reproduce and each fox needs 3 rabbits.
  5. Run the simulation for 10 generations at high, medium and low food supply, keeping all other starting numbers the same, and graph rabbits and foxes over time for each level.
  6. Compare the simulation to the real data: where does the model match the real pattern, and where does it miss (for example lag time or how deep the crash goes)? Remember the model only shows what your rules built in.
  7. Write a claim-evidence-reasoning argument: how does resource availability affect individuals and populations, and how does a change to one part of the ecosystem (a drought cutting forage) affect the populations? Cite the full real-data pattern with numbers as your main evidence, and use the simulation only for comparison.
  8. Present the graphs and argument, including what a drought might do to a real ecosystem.

Standards mapped

  • NGSS · MS-LS2-1

    Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

  • NGSS · MS-LS2-4

    Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.