Darwin 2009: natural selection

We have developed a set of four activities that vividly illustrate natural selection, principally for use in primary schools. Natural selection is a process that is integral to the development of all living things. The year 2009 is particularly appropriate for doing these activities in schools as it is the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin who did so much to explain how living things change in response to their environment; natural selection. It is also the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin?s seminal work On the Origin of Species.

Activities

Activity 1
Development of antibiotic resistance. In modern times the development by bacteria of resistance to antibiotics is an example of extremely rapid natural selection. This phenomenon is a current threat to our health.
Activity 2
Natural selection involving camouflage, an activity based on observations and experiments with the peppered moth.
Activity 3
How fossils formed. Fossils enable us to know what living forms existed way back in the past, and reveal that natural selection has been at work for hundreds of millions of years.
Activity 4
Touching fossils.

Content Main

The props for the activities are easily obtained from supermarkets and toy shops (except for the fossils; these can easily be borrowed from friends and colleagues, and children themselves, perhaps). The four activities take about an hour to do. You can download a description of the activities from the Darwin Today website of Research Councils UK (RCUK)

Then click on ?Resources?. The first ?Natural Selection ? hands-on Activities for Key Stage 2? link takes you to a step-by-step guide. The second item on the RCUK page is ?Natural Selection ? hands-on Activities for Key Stage 2 (Notes)?. This gives background information on: Charles Darwin; nature?s ingredients for natural selection; and a brief account of the natural selection of the peppered moth, with a template of the moth for the activity. There are also photographs taken of the children of Compton Church of England Primary School (Berkshire) doing all four of the activities. You can also see some of the pictures by clicking on the links under 'Picture Gallery'.