Oddly enough, last week while getting haircuts I saw this article in Smithsonian magazine.  I was first drawn to the fact the Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day 200 years ago.  Spencer and I read the articles and I was glad to see that the Natural History museum had an exhibit on Darwin’s orchids to correspond so nicely with our lesson!  Doncha just love it when that happens??  So, after the Newseum, we popped over there to see the exhibit.  I expected the orchids to be fake, but they were real, and remarkable.  In short, Darwin had this theory we know as ‘evolution’ and he didn’t just blurt out his ideas, he quietly studied thousands of species until he felt more confident in his theory.  One thing he studied extensively were orchids.  Apparently, orchids have been around a couple of million years and there were fossilized remains that he could connect to modern day orchids. 

Everyone thinks Darwin was such a revolutionary ‘out there’ thinker, but in fact the ancient Greek scholars felt that life on land originated in the sea centuries before Christ even existed! 

Some interesting things about Darwin’s theories are that even today, almost 150 years later, they hold up.  We found that interesting because in today’s world, people can hardly hold one simple theory together more than a month! 

One of Darwin’s observations included how over time these orchids adapted to attract their pollinators.  Some looked like butterflies and some looked like bees.  When inside the exhibit we could actually see the resemblance! 

After looking at the orchids we watched a film in the evolution theater.  It explained why mammals are mammals, and how we evolved from the age of the dinosaur.  The movie was all good, but Cade really liked sitting next to the monkey—Malena...not so much. 

 

 

However, while all the exhibits were great, my favorite plaque was this one… I just love the “If you can read this..” 

Cracked me up!

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Once back at home we picked up this great book called Evolution Revolution.  It does an awesome job of explaining Darwin, his life and his theories to the kids.