June 2010 Newsletter

Dear Charles Darwin,

Welcome to the June 2010 newsletter from The Charles Darwin Trust.

'Last year we celebrated Darwin’s 150th anniversary. His contribution was rightly and properly recognised. But is that it? Must we now sit patiently and wait for his 200th?'
Ancestor's Trail website

The Charles Darwin Trust's answer to that question is certainly not.

This newsletter will continue to be delivered to your inbox regularly to let you know about forthcoming events and share the Trust's ideas on how Darwin can inspire learning about science and the natural world. In this newsletter you will find:

Teacher taking a photograph of a leaf being pulled into an earthworm's burrow in the gardens of Down House. Copyright The Charles Darwin Trust

'Have you all brainwashed me over the past 2 days? I just took my dog for a walk and spent the whole time looking for worm casts and places where leaves were being pulled into the soil! I want to find out more about Darwin as a person and about his theories. I have been inspired. '
Primary Science Co-ordinator after a visit to Down House,  March 2010

‘Knowing more about Darwin as a person, it is easier now for me to describe his ideas and ways of working.’
Teacher Leader for Science, March 2010

'Getting ‘in the shoes’ of Darwin has made me understand his theories.'
A-level student on the new A-level programme at Down House,  March 2010

'An excellent hands-on experience which explained Darwin’s theory of natural selection.'
Teacher on the new A-level programme at Down House,  March 2010

'The best bit of the day was walking in the woods, seeing butterflies, finding the centipede, seeing the bees' Primary student on an Edible Islington day at Down House, April 2010

Launch of Darwin Trail at Caledonian Park, Islington

The Charles Darwin Trust is working with The Garden Classroom and the London Borough of Islington's Parks and Open Spaces Department to develop a Darwin Trail around Caledonian Park in Islington. The trail will take visitors around the park in a tangible engagement with the natural world around them and will be the first Darwin Trail in the UK with urban ecology at its core. Randal Keynes, a trustee of The Charles Darwin Trust, and councillors from the London Borough of Islington will launch the trail on 6th July. At his home, Down House in Kent, Darwin created a sandwalk - a gravel path around his grounds that he called his thinking path. He walked the sandwalk every day whatever the weather and, observing the minute changes, developed his ideas. The trail in Caledonian Park will encourage the concept of walking as an opportunity for reflection, for observation of the natural world and, of course, for physical exercise. It will be accessible to the local community at all times and will be of particular benefit to local schools.

Learning opportunities in the London Borough of BromleyPupils at King Henry's Walk Gardens on a Darwin Explore! day. Copyright The Charles Darwin Trust

The Charles Darwin Trust regularly works with the London Borough of Bromley to create learning programmes for local schools. The Trust trained educators at the Bromley Environmental Education Centre at High Elms (BEECHE) which now offers Darwin-Inspired Learning sessions for teachers and students.

On June 16th, students from two primary schools in Bromley will experience habitats and organisms featured in the surrounds of Downe and Cudham villages through a series of workshops drawing inspiration from Darwin’s Tree of Life at Downe Primary School.

Trust education consultant, Dr Dawn Sanders, will be delivering a workshop on carnivorous plants through Gardens for Learning.

Discover Darwin learning packs promoted to UNESCO associated schools

The Discover Darwin learning packs written by Trust educators and described in the last newsletter, are now being promoted to UNESCO associated schools across the UK via a special newsletter for the International Year of Biodiversity. The link we gave in the last newsletter to the downloadable versions of the packs was incorrect. This is the correct link to the Darwin's Landscape Laboratory website.

A -level Students in Darwin's greenhouse at Down House, observing carnivorous plants. Copyright The Charles Darwin TrustNew A-level programme

The Charles Darwin Trust launched a new educational programme for post-16 students this year and two successful  A-level study days have so far been held at Down House, Charles Darwin’s home. The students followed in Darwin’s footsteps enthusiastically as they explored his home and the places that were so important to the development of his theory. The visit encouraged them to gain a deeper appreciation of how Darwin worked, the questions he asked and about the experiments he carried out at Down House. In addition, the students attempted to answer their own questions about the natural world using Darwin methodology and his approach to biological questions as an inspiration.

The relevance of Darwin’s approach for today’s scientists was highlighted recently when details of the Mitocheck project, a European research collaboration into cell division, were recently publicised. A commentator, Dr Eve Barak (member of the American Society of Cell Biology), drew attention to the fact that this mirrored Darwin’s approach saying 'The theories of evolution and of genetic transmission of heritable traits could not have been formulated if biologists had not carefully and extensively observed the natural world and then thought deeply and with open minds about what they had observed.'

This thoughtful and open-minded approach is something that the Trust aims to instill in students through the post-16 education programme. Please contact us if you would like to know more about The Charles Darwin Trust post-16 programme.

Primary students on the Edible Islington programme at Down House. Copyright The Charles Darwin TrustAncestor's Trail event on 19th June

The Ancestor's Trail is an event to continue celebrating the work of Charles Darwin organised by the Taunton Humanists in the Quantock Hills in Somerset. It is inspired by Richard Dawkin's 2004 book The Ancestor's Tale: a pilgrimage to the dawn of life which sets out the evolutionary history of humans in the style of the Canterbury Tales. The Ancestor’s Trail (Saturday 19 June) will trace the course of evolution by following footpaths representing the branches of Charles Darwin’s Tree of Life. You must register to walk and choose a starting point on the tree of life. Each branch will rendezvous with the main trail at specific times such that the ever-increasing band of 'pilgrims' arrives together at the dawn of life - Kilve beach, appropriately famous for its fossils. Once there, the 'pilgrims' will celebrate their shared origins with music and story-telling. See the Ancestor's Trail website for more details.

We hope you have found this newsletter informative.  Please contact us if you have any questions about the work of the Trust.

The Charles Darwin Trust
info@charlesdarwintrust.org
www.charlesdarwintrust.org

The Charles Darwin Trust – Registered Company Number: 3694613; Registered Charity Number: 1074914
Registered Office: 14 Canonbury Park South, London N1 2JJ, UK