Evolution and real life cycles
Compare the Caterpie line with a real butterfly life cycle, and be clear about what in the game is fiction.
Learning objective
Pupils name the stages of a butterfly life cycle, compare them with the three stages of the Caterpie line, and explain two ways in which the game is not like real life.
Curriculum links
England, KS1 and KS2
- KS2 Science: life cycles of an insect, an amphibian, a mammal and a bird (Year 5)
- KS1 Science: animals have offspring which grow into adults (Year 2)
- KS2 Maths: compare and order measurements
United States, broad grade bands
- Grade 3 science: life cycles of plants and animals
- Grades 2 to 4 math: compare and order measurements
What you need
- A projector
- The Stat Duel game
- Three sheets of paper per team
- Picture or model of a caterpillar, a chrysalis and a butterfly, if you have one
The plan, minute by minute
- Warm-up, 5 minutes: Put the stages in order. Give teams four mixed-up cards: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. They order them and tell you what happens in each stage. Name this change: metamorphosis.
- Main, 8 minutes: Meet the Caterpie line. Open the three pages on pokee.si (links below) and read out Caterpie (0.3 m, 2.9 kg), Metapod (0.7 m, 9.9 kg) and Butterfree (1.1 m, 32 kg). In the games, Caterpie evolves into Metapod at level 7, and Metapod into Butterfree at level 10. Pupils say which real stage each one matches.
- Main, 7 minutes: Compare the three stages. Write the three stages and their heights and weights in a table on the board. Which is the tallest? Which is the heaviest? By how much does the weight grow from Caterpie to Butterfree? (29.1 kg.) Real caterpillars do not look like that, so ask what the game changed.
- Main, 5 minutes: Fact or fiction?. Teams sort statements into “real” and “only in the game”: a butterfly was once a caterpillar (real); a creature changes because it reached a level (game); a caterpillar spends a stage as a chrysalis (real); a butterfly can battle (game).
- Plenary, 5 minutes: Be careful with the word evolution. In the games, a Pokémon “evolves” within its own lifetime. In real science, evolution means whole populations changing over very many generations. A caterpillar becoming a butterfly is metamorphosis, the same animal changing form. Ask pupils to say it back in their own words.
Projector game
Stat Duel. Optional: play a short Stat Duel on height or weight to practise comparing, then compare the three stages yourself on the board, using the Pokémon pages linked below.
More to use
- Lesson: How evolution works. What triggers evolution in the games, with examples.
- Quiz pack: Evolutions. A ten-question quiz for pupils who finish early.
- Caterpie page. The evolution chain and facts on one page.
- Metapod page. The middle stage.
- Butterfree page. The last stage.
- Stat Duel on weight. Opens the projector game with the Stat set to Weight, for the optional practice round.
Differentiation
Easier
Stay with the card sort and the sentence “First it is a ___, then a ___, then a ___.” Leave out the numbers.
Harder
Compare with a frog (egg, tadpole, froglet, frog) and ask what is the same and what is different in how the body changes. Introduce the words larva and pupa.
Talk about it
The game says a creature evolves when it reaches a level. What really makes a caterpillar change into a butterfly, and why can it not skip a stage?
Numbers used in this plan
| Pokémon | Type | Height | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caterpie | Bug | 0.3 m | 2.9 kg |
| Metapod | Bug | 0.7 m | 9.9 kg |
| Butterfree | Bug / Flying | 1.1 m | 32 kg |
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