Last half term, Year 6 explored the topic of evolution by learning about Charles Darwin and the Galapagos Islands. After the first topic lesson, where the children discovered the Islands and their inhabitants, the children wrote down questions for a Doctor Stephen Blake. Doctor Blake is an ecologist and conservationist who has lived all over the world including in the Congo and the Galapagos. His primary interest is preserving tortoises’ habitats by tracking their movements. The questions were sent to him all the way in America and… we got a response! Doctor Blake made the video below to answer Year 6’s questions and tell us about the tortoises he studies. He was also very impressed with the clever questions the children asked including “How long have the Galapagos Island been there?” and “How do you think humans have impacted the Galapagos Islands?”.
https://slu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?tid=d0029492-9401-4069-bf7a-acd4016a7a61
If you would like to find out more Doctor Stephen Blake and his work you can visit the Charles Darwin Foundation page here: https://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/component/contact/contact/215-stephen-blake?Itemid=150
Throughout this topic, the children studied persuasive speeches which resulted in some excellent speeches from Darwin to the Royal Geographical Society convincing them of his Theory.
Check out this link for one of the amazing speeches by Ella:
The topic also inspired some fantastic art work from woodwork to clay work and even Minecraft islands!
