Darwin200
The Wellcome Trust brings Darwin into the 21st century

Darwin's Children

Unusually for a Victorian gentleman, Darwin spent a great deal of time with his ten children and often involved them in his own experiments and investigations. With this in mind, the Wellcome Trust is developing a major educational initiative.

Our aim is to produce a series of Darwin-inspired experiments or 'practical enquiries' that will be made available to every UK school child. These will emphasise the relationship of Darwin's work and legacy to contemporary science, particularly the biomedical sciences.

Schools will receive a kit containing everything they need to carry out the experiments plus a wealth of information and resources on Darwin-inspired activities they can do throughout 2009 and beyond.

Darwin's Children for primary schools

The main experiment for primary schools will be developed in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Through a range of activities in and out of the classroom, children will experience the variation and adaptation characteristics of plants - key ideas that underpin Darwin’s theory of evolution. They will also come to understand the vital roles plants play in our lives, not least through their medicinal qualities.

Darwin's Children for secondary schools

The programme for secondary schools is likely to include experiments for different age groups, featuring:

• natural selection in predators and prey
• sexual selection in brine shrimp
• antibiotic resistance in bacteria
• the genetics of our ability to taste bitter foods.

Research on teachers' views

To inform the initiative, the Wellcome Trust commissioned research into teachers’ views, approaches and needs in relation to ‘Darwin-inspired’ science. Read the report of the findings [PDF 48KB].

Resources for teachers

The ‘Big Picture on Evolution’ is a useful resource for teachers and looks at the theory of evolution, the evidence that supports it, unanswered questions and the history of public reaction.