Evolution Detective Academy is underway! This week, KTS kids started their quest to solve Charles Darwin's "mystery of mysteries", the one he figured out over 150 years ago. Yes, they'll have to find out where all that variety of living things, past and present, comes from.
Charles Darwin at work
In our first class, we talked about the first explorers and how they found species of animals and plants they had never imagined existed. What an extraordinary biodiversity!
We also spent some time getting to know Carl Linnaeus.
Back in the 1700s, Linnaeus invented a system of two names to identify species. Thanks to Linnaeus, your species has a relatively simple name, Homo sapiens.
Linnaeus made it easier for scientists around the world to work together. Before him they often didn't know what species other scientists were talking about!
The kids also got to to work on evolutionary trees. They discovered how trees similar to their family trees show not only the diversity of living things but also their relationships to each other.
Next, they made a cookie family tree (and got to eat Meredith's home-made cookies!)
And they used a dichotomous key to discover the name of a mystery cookie! A dichotomous key is a very cool tool that presents us with a series of choices that lead us to the correct name of an animal or plant or any item.
It looks like this:
Till next time!