CHARLES DARWIN - who is he?

Charles Darwin 1809-1882

With a table partner, read and discuss the following together - why was it important? How does it help an organism? What is the definition of an "organism"?

Darwin was an English naturalist whose famous ideas began developing as a result of his experiences during a five-year voyage on the British ship H.M.S. Beagle. This ship sailed around the world on a mapping expedition during the early 1830s. Darwin's job was  to record information about the geology, sea life, land animals and plants, and people that the Beagle would discover. When he set sail in 1831, Darwin was twenty-two years old, fresh out of college, fascinated with science.  http://www.visionlearning.com

As he visited different continents and islands he began to notice not the similarities in plants and animals, but the small differences he noticed in the species that helped them to survive.  He wrote journal notes, drew pictures and collected many different plants and animals that had never been seen before.  After his observations he developed the theory of NATURAL SELECTION.  This theory states that certain inherited traits will disappear from a species if that trait doesn't help the species to survive.  Organisms that do NOT inherit traits that help it survive to reproduce will die and not pass their traits to the offspring.  If organisms cannot reproduce to pass their traits to the next generation, then their traits will be lost. 

Click on Darwin's picture above and answer the five posted questions.