Darwin-L Message Log 6:28 (February 1994)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

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<6:28>From bjoseph@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu  Mon Feb  7 09:26:53 1994

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 94 10:26:50 EST
From: Brian D Joseph <bjoseph@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Query re evolution in elementary schools

My third-grade son is interested in doing a project for school on
evolution (don't you love how kids choose focused topics?!) and I thought
I might take advantage of the expertise in this list to get some advice.

First, does anyone out there have experience with the teaching of
evolution in elementary schools and how one might approach it?

Second, are there any good books at about a 5th-grade level (he's a pretty
strong reader) on evolution?

Third, we have a copy of the book "After Man.  A Zoology of the Future"
at home and my sone has been fascinated with that.  It made me wonder
what the appraisal of the book among those in the know in the life
sciences was?  It provided us with an idea for a project for my son,
namely to pick some current life form and do a "future zoology" of
it (he is very captivated by beavers, for some reason, and has been
for years, so they would be a natural for him).  Does anyone have any
ideas on whether such a project might "work", in the sense of getting
him to learn about evolution and then try to apply what he has learned?

Finally, does anyone know of good biographies of Charles Darwin that are
geared at about a 5th-grade level (we will try our local librarians,
who are always helpful and knowledgeable, but again I thought one
of you might have some first-hand experience that would be useful here).

Following a tradition onthe LINGUIST net, people may respond to me
individually and then I will summarize my "findings" to a posting
to the whole DARWIN list, but if people want to respond publically,
that's OK with me.

Many thanks in advance.

Brian D. Joseph
Linguistics, The Ohio State University

bjoseph@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu

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