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Science Horizons Survival
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Document created by rstuart@ukonline.co.uk on 12th August 2000 for
World of Spectrum: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/
Discover what it is like to be an animal in the wild! Choose to be a lion
stalking your prey and escaping human hunters. Or be more adventurous as a hawk,
mouse or even a butterfly, searching for food and avoiding deadly predators.
Survival models the natural world, brings to life the hazards that different
creatures must face in their struggle to stay alive.
Science Horizons, published by Macmillan Education, is one of Britain's most
successful primary school science schemes. Each program concentrates on key
scientific ideas in a way that makes learning fun.
Educational aims
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Survival introduces users to some of the principles of ecology (the
interdependence of living things and their environment). By participating in the
Survival 'game' players can clearly see some of the hazards that creatures must
face in the wild. They must find enough food and water to stay alive, while
keeping alert to escape from their enemies. The amount of food available and the
likelihood of being killed by a predator both depend on the habitat in which the
animal lives. The program illustrates how favourable or unfavourable habitats
can be for different creatures.
As users become more familiar with the program, they will build up a profile of
each type of creature - its energy requirements, predators, lifespan - and see
how it makes up part of a food chain (hawks eat mice, which eat berries, for
example).
Loading the program
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Make sure your ZX Spectrum® is connected as explained in the Sinclair ZX
Spectrum® manual.
Check that the tape is at the beginning.
Type LOAD "SURVIVAL" and press ENTER or type LOAD "" and press ENTER.
Start the tape.
The message Loading please wait should appear on the screen. The program takes
about 3 minutes to load.
Running the program
-------------------
When the program has loaded, pictures of 6 creatures appear on the screen {See
Fig 1 in Survival_PictureSheet.gif}.
Press SPACE to move to the animal of your choice.
Press ENTER to choose the animal and proceed to the next screen.
A grid appears which represents the Survival world in map form. Rather like the
real globe, there are ice caps to the North and South, with sea and land masses
between.
You (the animal) are positioned in the middle of the letters T Y U
G J
B N M
Press the appropriate letter if you wish to change your starting position (or
use a joystick if you have one).
Note that the computer starts you in an environment which is favourable for your
chosen animal. When you first start using the program it is wise to begin there.
You can be more adventurous and explore the terrain later on.
Now the game begins.
At any time, press P to pause (and review the situation!).
Press C to continue the program when you are ready.
Your starting grid is shown on the left hand side.
If you wish to take a print from the screen, make sure your printer is connected
as in the ZX Printer® manual, then press CAPS SHIFT and Z together.
Press Q to put the sound on or off.
A is the animal.
O represents food of some kind.
X represents a predator of some kind.
Habitats are shown in different colours.
Press K to see a key for the habitats at the bottom of the screen. Press K again
to remove this from the screen.
A close up grid of the animal's immediate environment is shown on the right hand
side. You can see exactly what food and predators there are surrounding you.
Press T Y U
G J
B N M
to change your position (or use a joystick if you have one).
You can move one square at a time.
We advise that you make only one key press at a time, so you can see the results
of your move and review the situation.
On the bottom left of the screen you can see your energy and water meters. You
must keep renewing your stores by finding food and water, otherwise you can die.
Your first concern is to escape a predator. If there are any (shown as X) in the
squares around you, use the position keys to move out of reach. When a predator
moves on to your square then you will probably be caught and die. Sometimes, if
the predator is old or weak, then you will come out alive.
Energy
------
You will see your energy decrease as the game goes on. Some creatures use energy
more quickly than others, and at different rates depending on their activity at
the time. To keep a store of energy you must move onto a food square. The food
may be static, or it may be alive and moving from square to square, in which
case you must actively pursue it.
Different kinds of food give different amounts of energy. When you land on the
food square you will see and hear the energy meter register an increase. If you
think you will get more than one burst of energy from the catch, then stay where
you are to feed until the meter stops rising.
Look out for predators while you do this!
If you wish to speed up the program, either for continued feeding or for any
other purpose, then press SPACE. (Of course this will give you less time to plan
your escape!)
With practice you will learn which foods provide most energy for a particular
creature, and therefore what is worth hunting - a hawk gains more energy from a
rabbit than from a worm, for example.
When your energy level becomes critically low, the meter turns black and makes a
warning sound.
Water
-----
To boost your water levels as they diminish you must move to a square next to
fresh water. If you wish to take more than one 'drink', stay where you are. You
will see and hear the water meter register an increase. (To speed up the
drinking action you can press SPACE as explained in Energy.)
As with the energy meter, there is a warning sound when the water level is
critically low.
Warning! Any creature will freeze to death as soon as it moves on the ice caps
at the north and south of the terrain (shown as white with black edges).
Key to symbols
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Habitats
ice caps - white with black edges
sea water - blue
fresh water - cyan (pale blue)
grass - yellow
wood - green
hills - red
scrub - magenta (pink/purple)
town - black
To restart game at any time press CAPS SHIFT and A together.
To clear program from memory press SYMBOL SHIFT and A together.
Food and predators
{See Fig 2 in Survival_PictureSheet.gif}
The Survival program as a model
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The program demonstrates the problems that creatures face in the wild. Even
animals which appear to have few natural enemies rely on a delicate balance
including weather, seasons, disease and injury, as well as the more obvious food
and predators.
A creature's chances of survival depend on the advantages and disadvantages of
its habitat, and this is demonstrated in the program. When you start to master
the game and are able to escape predators for long enough, you can explore
different habitats and see how favourable they are for each type of animal, bird
or insect.
Chances of survival also vary with age. The young are generally very vulnerable
and many die before adulthood. We start Survival with the animal as young adults
to avoid this very difficult stage. As the animal becomes older it will be
slower and perhaps weaker and so will be less adept at catching its prey and
escaping from danger. We have built ageing into the program so that, although
you may land on a food square, you will not have such a high success rate at
catching the food. At the same time you will notice that you seem to be more
vulnerable to predators yourself. So when you are becoming practised at the game
and have stayed alive for some time - beware - it becomes more difficult!
Survival takes into account the range of vision of the various living things.
Compare the range of vision of a hawk, which hovers and attacks from a distance,
to that of a butterfly. The program shows food and predators on the screen only
when they are within sight range of that animal. For this reason, as a fly for
example, you will see things appearing suddenly at close range, whereas as a
hawk you will be able to see food over a wider range on the grid.
{See Fig 3 in Survival_PictureSheet.gif}
You may notice that the program has a 'drought zone' where, although water can
be found, an animal loses water more easily than elsewhere. This resembles the
desert zones found near the equator.
As you continue to use the program, you may like to build up your own map of the
Survival world. You can explore new territory by adjusting your starting
position each time. Remember that the starting grid (8 x 8 squares) represents
the total world, with ice caps at the North and South. You are free to move
right around the Survival 'globe' by going East or West. When you have chosen
your starting position, the game proceeds with your starting square broken down
into its small 10 x 10 squares shown on the left hand side of the screen. You
could easily make up your own map using squared paper, colouring in the habitats
as you explore them.
Remember that the program can only represent a series of snap-shots of a
creature's life. The length of time you manage to stay alive is not measured in
'real time', but has been specially calculated by the computer to provide a
model for each animal, and so give you an insight into its life. The lifetime of
an animal in the program cannot be related directly to the amount of food
consumed or energy expended during the game.
Background information
----------------------
Here are some brief notes about the animals featured in Survival which may help
you to relate the program to the natural world.
In the program we have called all 6 creatures animals, but we could be more
specific and call the lion and the mouse mammals, the hawk and the robin birds,
and the fly and butterfly insects.
Hawk
The hawk in the program represents the hawk and falcon family, which ranges from
small birds, such as the sparrowhawk, up to the big fish eagles and ospreys. The
hawk family has a characteristic hooked beak, strong feet with talons, and
excellent eyesight, all of which may help the hawk to catch its prey. Many hawks
hunt from a height and dive on to their prey in a 'stoop', reaching high speeds
as they do so.
The hawk's main threat is from humans. Many young hawks are caught illegally and
sold to falconers. Gamekeepers often shoot or trap hawks and falcons to protect
the game birds in their care. Protective laws seem to have made little progress
towards increasing the wild populations.
During the 1960s another human threat - the use of pesticides - caused a
decrease in the population. The hawk is particularly vulnerable to chemicals in
this way. It is at the end of a food chain through which poisons have
accumulated, resulting in vulnerable thin-shelled eggs or weak young.
Most members of the hawk family live for several years. Many are migratory, and
in Survival you may need to move some distance to find food.
The average life of a hawk is 6-8 years.
Robin
The robin has many more enemies than larger mammals, including both wild and
domestic animals and birds, such as pet cats, the carrion crow (which may rob
the robin's nest), magpies and jays. For this reason, the robin should hide and
take cover, rather than head for open spaces.
Winter is the biggest cause of death as the bird loses heat very rapidly and
must find plenty of food to keep it alive.
Fortunately, the robin's diet is not selective, for it must feed frequently all
year round.
The robin's average life span is shorter than might be expected - if you survive
for 2 years in the program you have done well.
Lion
The lion appears to have few enemies apart from human hunters. However, the lion
faces other threats, such as drought. Even where food appears to be abundant,
the lion may be forced to venture further afield in search of water.
The lion relies on its ability as a hunter to obtain its food. An injury could
mean a lion is too slow to catch its prey and may lead to a slow death by
starvation. As lions get older they become less able hunters and must rely more
and more on finding dead animals for food - possibly the remains of another
lion's catch. The lion then comes into competition with scavenging animals. The
boldest of these is the hyena, which may attack and kill a solitary exhausted
lion. A lifespan of 10 or 12 years is reasonable for a lion.
The lion is strongest when it is between 3 and 12 years old. In the program we
start the lion at 3 years of age, at which stage a male lion would normally be
forced to leave the pride (group of lions) where he was born. If you manage to
survive for 7 or 8 years in the program you will have reached old age.
Mouse
Mice and other similar rodents usually have a dangerous life, with constant
threat from predators. Their lifespan is very short - about 5 or 6 months in
summer, but less in winter - giving an average of 3 or 4 months.
Counterbalancing these risks, the mouse has a high breeding rate, with short
cycles and large litters.
It is best for mice to live under cover - in wood or urban environment - rather
than open space, where it can easily be seen.
The program is modelled on a field mouse which, unlike the house mouse, ventures
into houses only occasionally in winter.
Fly
Flies have a very varied diet and can adapt to a range of climates, apart from
extreme cold. The insect requires a certain minimum 'reaction temperature' below
which it cannot move. The insect, unlike a mammal, cannot create its own body
heat.
There are many living things whose diet includes flies. Also, due to the
irritation and disease-carrying which flies cause, humans spend a considerable
amount of time and money trying to kill them.
The lifespan of a fly varies from less than a day to 2 weeks, depending on
whether it escapes its enemies.
Butterfly
Different types of butterfly have quite different lifestyles, and the program is
not designed to illustrate any one in particular. Some species of butterfly
hibernate during winter and may live for several months. (You may find them
hibernating in garden sheds, where they should be left undisturbed.)
The species used in the program is non-hibernating, and may live for 2 or 3
months. The main food source is nectar (the basic ingredient of which is sugar)
which can be found in flowers. Different flowers produce nectar at different
times of day, so if you see a flower suddenly disappear during the program, it
simply means that it is the wrong time of day for that flower to produce nectar.
Butterflies often display splendid camouflage. Many have markings on their wings
which resemble eyes, these act as a disguise and startle potential predators.
Bright colours act as a warning that the butterfly tastes unpleasant. Some
butterflies are coloured brown to blend with their woody habitat, or feature a
pattern which makes their shape hard to distinguish from their background.
Acknowledgements
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Software developed by Five Ways Software.
Software developed with the co-operation of the Education Authority, West Sussex
County Council.
Educational consultant: Tim Tregear, Gossops Green County Junior School,
Crawley, West Sussex.
Program and documentation © Macmillan Education 1984. Packaging © Sinclair
Research Ltd 1984.
All rights reserved. No part of this program, packaging or documentation may be
reproduced in any form. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending or sale and
repurchase prohibited.
Manufactured by Sinclair Research Ltd.
25 Willis Road, Cambridge CB1 2AQ.
ISBN 0 333 37013 9
® Registered Trade Marks of Sinclair Research Ltd. All rights reserved.
Made in UK.