Simulation to Teach Concepts of Evolution

The Finger-Painting Fitness Landscape Application makes use of a model first proposed by Sewall Wright in 1932 to explain how combinations of genetic characteristics interact in determining the success of a population of organisms within a particular environment: the fitness landscape metaphor. Fitness landscapes are depicted as a plot on two axes representing two traits. Hills and valleys of the theoretical fitness of an organism with traits at that location can be plotted. The fitness landscape is an over simplification, but it has been found to be a helpful visualization in developing evolutionary thinking (Zaman, Ofria, & Lenski, 2012). It directly addresses a key idea in understanding evolution, namely how populations of organisms evolve from one successful form to a more successful one.