Charles Darwin

Objectives:

• Students will be able to state details about the life of Charles Darwin.

• Students will be able to state Darwin’s theories of evolution and survival of the fittest.

Suggested Grades:

4th Grade - 5th Grade - 6th Grade

Lesson Procedure:

Print the reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions. Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt:

Charles Darwin was a British scientist who lived in the nineteenth century. He was born in England in 1809. Darwin's concept of natural selection changed the way people thought about the development of life, especially the evolution of man.

Darwin went to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, but he dropped out before finishing and went instead to the University of Cambridge to become a preacher. While he was there, he met two men that had an important influence on his future. One was Adam Sedgwick, a geologist, and the other was John Stevens Henslow, a scientist who studied nature. After Darwin graduated from Cambridge, Henslow convinced him to come aboard the ship HMS Beagle as an unpaid assistant. They would travel around the world observing nature. Darwin was impressed with nature. He was amazed by the way natural forces had shaped the surface of the earth.

Continued...