Darwin Day
— February 12th —
 Darwin Day celebrates the birthday of Charles Darwin, a British naturalist born in 1809. His writings, particularly the 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, explained how species originate and change over time: through the process of natural selection. His book also popularized the idea of descent with modification ("evolution"), a theory that had been slowly (very slowly) gaining acceptance among scientists of his time, at the expense of the previously popular "by magic" explanation. Because evolution and natural selection are the fundamental ideas on which all later biology curricula are based, Darwin Day is an opportunity to make sure elementary school kids don't, for some reason, secretly harbor 17th-century views of life.
Ways to celebrate:
- Have a cake! Decorate with plants and animals, Galapagos Islands, or even just a photograph of Darwin himself. Examples: One, two, three.
- Have children perform skits that feature descent with modification. Award prizes.
- Make a class mural that depicts descent with modification. Focus on the kids favorite organism (e.g., dog). See this photo for more details. Hang in the school hallway.
- Invite a local biologist to come talk about Darwin and evolution.
- Watch a movie that discusses evolution. WGBH's "Evolution" series is great.
- Read aloud some books about evolution. Examples: one, two, three, four, five.
- Take a trip to the zoo, and talk about how all the animals have evolved over time. And talk about how populations of zoo animals are probably evolving in their new environment (the zoo).
|
![](http://www.swarthmore.edu/images/spacer.gif"){kind=spacer}
| 