On the 10th of March, selected students from year 10 were taken out of school to visit the Natural History Museum in South Kensington.

The purpose of the trip was to develop a deeper understanding of Darwinism which included an evolution debate and a chance to experience the new Attenborough Studio, relevant to our GCSE topics.

Ms Lopez, Ms Wong and Miss Cakebread supervised the trip which began with a debate on Darwinism against creationism. Darwinism is a theory of organic evolution claiming that new species arise and are perpetuated by natural selection (ref 1).

Split into groups, we developed our arguments for both arguments with activities around the museum. We were first introduced to Darwinism and the negativity which surrounded this theory as a result of creationism. In my group, we looked at evidence for evolution which included examining a variety of animal’s bone structure. While an opposing group argued how God created all beings on earth, also using evidence against evolution.

Our second activity included a 40min interactive lesson within the Attenborough studio where we learnt about diseases and tried making a control for the infectious disease. We used interactive voting pads similar to the Active votes in class. We also watched videos to represent the situation in real life. Most people agreed that the Attenborough studio was the most enjoyable activity of our trip as we were sat in a very modern and futuristic environment which almost resembled a TV studio!

The day was enjoyable for all year 10 students who even asked to return to the Natural History Museum! We would like to thank the teachers who organised the trip and look forward to more opportunities in the future.

*Reference 1: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=darwinism

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