In-lab Assignment 1 (Individual)
In this interactive game, you get to be the virus and the goal of the game is to infect an kill the entire world’s population! (IKR?) You will get to see what types of things (symptoms, vectors, etc) make viruses more difficult to detect, more transmissible, and more deadly. Using this information, you will “decide” how your virus mutates to be the most effective (at killing everyone!).
Completion Means: Play at least 2 rounds of Pandemic Simulator, answer the questions at the bottom of the description, and submit the answers here.
1. Click on the link for Pandemic Simulator and press "PLAY THE GAME". If the sound annoys you, press the red box in the upper left hand corner.
2. Choose New Game, select "Virus" and name your virus.
3. Play one round of the game (should take about 20 minutes), paying attention to which sorts of things seem to make the virus spread faster or become more deadly and what actions the governments took to slow down the spread.
- You earn DNA points, and with those you can purchase different symptoms, transmission types, and resistance of your virus to drugs, temperature, etc.
- You can find out what the different countries are doing in response to the virus by clicking on a country, and then click on "i" for information. Make a note of what strategies the countries are taking to counteract the spread of the virus.
- The game will be over when a vaccine is created that stops the spread, or the virus ends up killing everyone (in which case, you win!).
- You can pause or speed up the pace of the game in the upper right hand corner.
4. Play a second round of the game, using the information that you gatherer from the first round, to see if you can improve.
After you have completed the second round, answer the following questions.
Were there any strategies that you used earlier in the second game than in the first game? Which ones and why? What actions did you take that seemed to make the virus more virulent, or more transmissible?
What are some actions that were taken by the governments in the game? Did they seem to have an effect on the spread?
Name one thing about the game scenario that that seems consistent with what you know about the COVID-19 pandemic. Name one thing about the game scenario that seems inconsistent with what you know about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Be ready to discuss these responses and also, submit your answers here on Moodle.