By Indykids Staff
Darwin is a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. It explores the life and discoveries of Charles Darwin, whose research led to the theory of evolution.*
The exhibit takes us on Darwin’s five-year voyage by boat, the HMS Beagle, and his studies on the Galápagos Islands. You can see live Galápagos tortoises, iguana and horned frogs, and journals, drawings and fossils that belonged to Darwin. Darwin’s theory suggested that life on earth is always changing and that life changed a lot over millions of years.
Darwin also understood how different organisms are connected and helped us to understand things such as how bacteria make people sick. Darwin’s discoveries helped pave the way for scientists today to make new discoveries.
Should there religion in science class? The Darwin exhibition comes at a time when there is a battle over teaching evolution in schools. Many conservative Christians would like Intelligent Design to be taught in science classes. Intelligent Design is the theory that living organisms are so complex that they must have been designed by God.
Exhibits like Darwin usually receive funding from corporations to be able to operate. But no corporation wanted to be associated with the exhibit.
The exhibit is open until May 29, 2006. For information, visit: www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/
*Evolution: The theory that organisms in nature change over generations and result in the development of new species.
