Mini Darwin on Galápagos: Evolution in the words of children

During an expedition on the Galápagos islands, seven children follow Charles Darwin’s tracks to repeat his observations and experiments in a playful and didactic way and discover the evolution of the species through natural selection.

By observing the geology of the volcanic archipelago, the children draw conclusions on adaptation. By making drawings of turtles and blue or red-footed birds, they learn all the secrets of taxonomy and differences among species. An amusing "eggs’ hunting" game is their way of understanding mimetism, while the "beauty" game reveals the mechanisms of sexual selection. Oceanography lessons teach them why one can find penguins on the equator. At the Darwin Station they analyze their samples of phytoplankton just fished in the sea, in preparation of a lesson on the food chain...

Pariscience 2009
: Friday 09th October 2009 from 10h15 to 11h45