February 12th is Darwin Day, where we celebrate the work of Charles Darwin and his theory of Evolution through Natural Selection. It’s Darwin’s birthday, so Happy Birthday!

Charles Darwin developed his theory in the late 1830s, following his observations of the natural world whilst travelling on the HMS Beagle. Once back in the UK Darwin was able to start working out his theory of evolution. Darwin was worried about the public response to his theory, and so he didn’t publish for over 20 years.

But Darwin wasn’t the only scientist working on evolution. At the same time, another English scientist called Alfred Russel Wallace had also been developing his theory of natural selection whilst travelling Malaysia collecting animal specimens. In 1858 he wrote to Darwin outlining his ideas. This spurred Darwin into action, and they published a joint paper outlining the theory of evolution by natural selection. But whilst Darwin went on to capitalise on this idea, Wallace went back to travelling the world.

Darwin’s famous book “The Origin of Species” was published in 1859 and it immediately became a best-seller. It caused significant controversy at the time, as it challenged the view that God had created all the different forms of life on Earth. It also implied that all living things shared a common ancestor, and that humans had evolved from apes. Many people at the time found this deeply distasteful and it caused quite a scandal.

Activity Ideas

Bird Beaks

Resources (per group):

• Chopsticks
• Tweezers
• Two bowls
• Sunflower seeds, dried peas or raisins
• Stopclock

Fill one bowl with raisins or seeds. Ask the children to use the chopsticks and see how many seeds/raisins they can pick up and transfer to the empty bowl in 30 seconds. Do this several times to get an average. Then ask them to repeat this using the tweezers.

Discuss which tool was the best for picking up the raisins? If they were a bird who mainly ate raisins, would they be better with long beak like the chopsticks, or a small beak like the tweezers.

As an extension, the children could find out about different birds such as ducks, eagles, flamingos and hummingbirds and explain how their beaks are adapted to the foods they eat. You could also introduce other foods, and other objects to “eat” them.

Link: Darwins Finches

During his time on the Galapagos Islands, Darwin collected specimens of the different species of finch living on the island. It wasn’t until he returned to the UK that he studied these specimens and realised how important they were.

By noticing that finches on the different islands had beaks that were adapted to their environment and realizing that finches whose beaks weren’t adapted wouldn’t survive, Darwin was able to start working out his theory of evolution. The Galápagos finches are a classic example of adaptive radiation. Their common ancestor arrived on the islands a few million years ago. Since then, a single species has evolved into different species that are adapted to fill different lifestyles.

Camouflaged Worms

Each group will need

• Metre stick
• Roll of string
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaners or coloured wool in 5 different colours
• Stopclock
• 4 sticks

Cut the pipe cleaner or wool into 1-2cm lengths, so that you have 20 pieces of each colour

Go out onto the school field and measure out a 5m x 5m square. Use the string to mark the boundaries using a stick in each corner.

One member of the group should scatter the pieces around the marked area.

Another member of the group (the predator) then has 1 minute to pick up as many pieces as possible.

Count and record how many of each colour were found.

Discuss with the children which colours were easy to spot and which were more difficult.

A similar experiment can be carried out inside using sheets of white paper and newspaper and small squares cut from each type of paper. Drop the squares on the large sheet of white paper and see how quickly you can collect them up. Swap to the newspaper and compare.

Quick Ideas

Mixed up animals

The children could cut up pictures or use computer software to build up new animals from the body parts of several different ones. They could then explain how these animals have adapted to a particular habitat, how they move, how they hunt or avoid predators etc.

You could use AI to generate the animals. Read this guide to find out more.

Candy Evolution

Count out 30 small sweets and 30 raisins into a small bowl. Pass this around the class and tell the children they are allowed to take, and eat, just one thing from the bowl. Don’t say why. Once back at the front, count out how many sweets and how many raisins are left. Discuss with the children which of the sweets was more likely to be eaten. If they were a small creature in this classroom, would they survive better if they looked like a sweet or a raisin? What would future generations look like?

Camouflage

Ask the children to find out about how different animals camouflage themselves. They could find photographs of different habitats and cut out and colour in paper animals so that they blend in with the photograph.

Galapagos Islands Virtual Field Trip

The children could find out about the Galapagos Islands and the animals and plants that live there. They could even use a Google Street View Trek and go on a virtual field trip to the islands! They could then produce a presentation or a report about the islands.

Read more: Virtual Field Trips

Design a Plant 

The children could be asked to design and draw plant that could live in a particular habitat such as a rainforest canopy, a pond or the desert. The children should consider the problems a plant might have living there, and come up with ingenious ways to get around them. They could label these features and write about them. The children could even build a 3D model of their plant from different materials.

These ideas are taken from my Science Fix book. For more ideas, and a guide to teaching Evolution, buy the book.