Charles Darwin is arguably one of the most important naturalists and biologists in history. He advanced a theory of evolution based on natural selection. Natural selection is how animal populations change and adapt through generations. Darwin is most remembered for his 5-year journey around the world where he studied different plants and animals. This journey was in 1831. On November 24, 1859, he published his book, On the Origin of Species, which detailed his theory using evidence he accumulated on this journey. You can learn more about Charles Darwin, his life and accomplishments at Biography.com. You can read his book, On the Origin of Species, yourself at the Project Gutenberg website.
Kids usually look a lot like their parents. This is because they share traits. A trait is something about a body part that makes it different. A small nose is a trait. We use traits to tell each other apart. All animals and plants have traits. Ants all look alike to us, but not to each other.
Some traits make life easier, and some make it harder. Giraffes have long necks. This makes it easier to eat leaves off of tall trees. A long-necked giraffe will be well fed. A well-fed giraffe will live a long time and have lots of babies. Those babies will probably have long necks too. So will their kids’ babies. Short-necked giraffes won’t live as long and won’t have as many babies—or maybe none at all.
Do you see how this works? Traits are passed down from parents to children. The traits that make life easier are called survival traits. To survive means to keep on living. Parents with good survival traits will live longer and have more babies. Those babies will have the parents’ survival traits. They will pass them on to their babies. This is how animals slowly change over time.
Extension & Application
Get into groups of 3 or more. Bring in pictures of your parents. In your groups, compare what you look like to your parents. Make a list of traits you share with your parents. Do this for every member in your group. Then, compare how you look to the members in your group. What traits do you share with your members? What traits are different? Make a new list. Look at both lists. What traits do you see come up a lot? What traits do you only see a couple times? Based on this, what traits do you think will be most likely passed on to your kids?