Charles Darwin & "The Origin of the Species"

This year is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his masterpiece, "On the Origin of Species." Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who realized and presented compelling evidence that all species of life evolved over time from common ancestors. He called that process "natural selection."

The fact that natural selection evolution occurs was generally accepted by the scientific community during his lifetime (he died in 1882), but it wasn't until the era of the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed and became the basis of the unifying theory of the life sciences—explaining the diversity of life.

Charles Darwin's convincing evidence that evolution occurs was very threatening to many Christians who believed that people were created specially by God and that they have not changed biologically since that creation. The idea that there could have been prehistoric humans who were anatomically different from us was rejected for similar reasons. However, Charles Lyell's geological evidence that the earth must be much older than 6,000 years, along with the rapidly accumulating fossil record of past evolution, convinced educated lay people in the 1860s to think what had been unthinkable earlier.

The 19th century rejection of the foundations of the theory of evolution continues to be controversial today in the 21st century, especially with fundamentalist Christians. They continue to support either the Creationist explanation of life found in the Bible, or the more elaborate theory of Intelligent Design. Neither of these explanations relies on the scientific method of Darwin that relied on using real evidence.

The evolution vs. creationism debate continues unabated today, with many proponents of intelligent design and creationism lobbying to get these topics included in the teaching of biology in our schools as an alternative explanation of how life on earth began.

BookCarts are complete learning activities for students with all resources needed to complete an inquiry-based assignment. This one-stop solution for teachers and students saves valuable classroom time, reduces plagiarism, increases time on task, and can customize learning resources for advanced, at level, or challenged students who are focusing on the same topic/issue.

Each BookCart copied by the teacher can be edited easily to add additional resources, directions for students, call number of print resources, an optional quiz, and essential questions for critical thinking for students to address.

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity for students to learn more about the controversy created by Darwin's theory of evolution and the biblical version of creation and/or the theory of intelligent design, "Evolution vs. Creationism in the Schools."

• Logon to the eLibrary Curriculum Edition TEACHER EDITION.
• Click the BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab.
• Type "Evolution vs. Creationism in the Schools" in the Search box.
• Click the COPY icon in the ACTIONS column to the right of this title.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

This BookCart already includes all the information that a student needs to complete the assignment. But, teachers can edit it to customize it for their students.

• Click the new BookCart Title to open it; it has the prefix "COPY OF."
• Delete "Copy of" and type your name in the AUTHOR boxes.
• Type your email address in the EMAIL box; or use your initials as a required filler.
• Optional: Edit the existing STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

You may also want to download our new complete listing of the 800 ProQuest Carts collection. The list is organized by curriculum area and the titles are in alphabetical order. Each Cart title is hyperlinked to the ProQuest collection, so that clicking it while in the Teacher Edition will give you a shortcut to copying it to your local collection.

Science and science fiction authors have helped us understand the wonders of science and the possibilities for the future.

Assign your students to research one of the following authors: Ray Bradbury, Carl Sagan, H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clark, Stephen King, or Isaac Asimov.

Students should write a report of at least 150 words that cites at least three resources on the author of their choice. Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking:

• What is this author's most famous work and what is the theme?
• How does this author's background help him to write about science effectively?
• What sort of ideas that the author wrote about have some application today?
• Do you enjoy science fiction; why or why not?

Click Study Units > Genre Pages > Science Fiction and Fantasy

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words that cites at least three resources and address the essential questions posed at the bottom of this section:

• Identify three characteristics of science fiction literature.
• Compare a recent science fiction novel, such as Jonathan Stroud's "The Amulet of Samarkand," with one written in the nineteenth century, such as H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, and describe the differences and similarities.
• Explain the main differences between science fiction and fantasy literature.

Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.

Assign students a report of at least 150 words, or a PowerPoint of at least seven slides, that cites at least three resources.

Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking in their reports (you can add or substitute others):

• What motivated Darwin to undertake his research on evolution?
• How was his research accepted by the scientific community and society in general?
• What was the basic theory of evolution that Darwin presented?
• How did religious leaders respond to Darwin's theory and why?
• What is your personal opinion about the validity of Darwin's theory and why?

Click the History icon > Study Units > Type "Darwin and theories of evolution" in the Study Units Title box.

Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.

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