Teaching, Teaching, Teaching Advising Teachers How to Teach About Dinosaurs in Schools
Everything is in full swing on the teaching front, we have got some work to complete for one of the UK universities over the next few weeks and then it seems to be full steam ahead as a number of regional primary schools are having science weeks over the next month or so. Our diaries are always quite full, but what with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the 150th anniversary of the publication of his ground breaking book “The Origin of Species” we seem to be busier than ever with our dinosaur workshops in schools and our dinosaur themed teaching activities. To be fair to Charles Darwin for a moment; we should acknowledge the full title of his 1859 book “On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” – catchy title isn’t it.
Hopefuly, we will get some time to visit the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival that is scheduled to take place at the end of the month, I know one of us has to go to Dorset as they want to view some Ichthyosaur remains that are currently being prepared.
Charles Darwin describes in great detail his arguement to support his theory of Natural Selection. He described the first edition of his book as “brief” when it was first published, for the record; our office copy has over 470 pages (including glossary). If you want to understand the theory, the book is a great place to start and the published notes on Darwin’s Beagle voyage is well worth a read too. Although once again it is no “rough guide to South America”, Darwin describes in fine detail his trips on land whilst on the Beagle expedition. It is a little known fact that whilst on the Beagle expedition Darwin spent a great deal of his time away from the ship exploring the mainland and islands of South America. If you want to understand a little of the background to the theory of evolution put forward by Darwin, then reading his descriptions and notes regarding his voyage is a good place to start.
Trouble is, we never seem to get a spare minute just to sit down and read a good book!