Education

Darwin stories, Darwin's great ideas and Darwin's ways of working and thinking are inspiring for anyone learning about the natural world. Darwin's example can promote a deep understanding and excitement about our environment, the way it works and how we affect it.

The Charles Darwin Trust has established this through evaluation of its pilot Darwin-Inspired Learning programmes at Down House for primary and secondary schools and for teachers, and through recording learners' specific comments and insights.

The Trust currently collaborates principally with English Heritage which owns and opens Down House to the public, and is advisor to English Heritage on development of the Discovery Visits at Down House. Other major partnerships are with the Natural History Museum, and with the Science Learning Centres with whom the Trust works to deliver Darwin-Inspired Learning programmes.

The Trust also works with individual schools and several community gardens to adapt the programmes for specific outcomes. Relationships often begin as 'knowledge partnerships' in which the Trust provides Darwin expertise. Longer-term programmes incorporate Continuing Professional Development for the teachers alongside  programmes for the students over a period of several months, and can be held either at Down House and/or at the schools themselves.

In 2010 Swindon Academy Year 6 and Year 7 students embarked on a new project: YES@Swindon Academy. This is a transition project whereby students  and teachers learn to think like Charles Darwin, and in the process Year 6 students are helped to make the progression to secondary school.

Explore with Darwin is a partnership between the Trust,  BBC World Class and the Field Studies Council to bring schools together from across the world to share their projects exploring the natural world. Randal Keynes wrote the Explore with Darwin download available from BBC World Class.

The Trust has collaborated with London Borough of Bromley to develop a new education pack for Key Stage 2 and 3 which was launched during National Science and Engineering Week in March 2010 and circulated to 86 secondary and 24 primary schools in the borough. It can be downloaded from the above link.

The bicentenary of Darwin's birth in February and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species in November 2009 stimulated a number of organisations to provide a wealth of activities and resources which are still available. See the links opposite for these other Darwin-inspired educational programmes and resources.