Charles Darwin

Biography Charles Darwin was born February 12 1809 in Shrewsbury England. He came from a long line of doctors, his father was a medical doctor, and his grandfather was a botanist. He was described as someone who “loved to explore nature” In 1825 he enrolled in Edinburgh University with his brother, two years later he transferred to Christ’s college in Cambridge, hoping to become a medical doctor like his father, but the sight of blood made him queasy so he studied natural history. After graduating he got invited to go on a five year voyage around the globe, he accepted and got hands on experience with different specimens and organisms. This had a profound impact on his view of naturalism and is what lead to his greatest theory, Many years after the voyage, after huge quantities of study Darwin released his “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”

Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection Darwin’s most profound theory was his theory of Evolution through Natural Selection The belief was that over long periods of time organisms develop traits that make them more likely to survive, this then causes them to pass on their traits. Over a long period of time organisms will end up looking very different from where they started, this theory was extremely important as it helped us understand the origin of almost all different organisms and helped us have a better understanding of biology and why we have the traits that we do.

Theories affecting Child development In 1877 Charles Darwin shared his theory on early language development. Using his diary he kept 37 years before his own child’s development, he came to the conclusion that infants have the same language capability of dogs and other animals as they can pick up and understand some words. This was important as according to Darwin a child’s ability to understand language is a reflection of mental development, and is important to evolutionary theory as language was an important evolutionary advantage to human survival.

Conclusions to His Theories Darwin often used his children to perform experiments, and noticed that both animals and humans act similarly when having different experiments done on them. This influenced his theory, that animals and humans evolved to become better at surviving.

Real World examples of Children Early examples of children showing survival instincts include being able to understand depth/height, crying as a form of communication and the ability of learning to walk. All of these are examples of abilities or traits that were passed down through generations so the best of the best could survive.

Children Influencing His Theories Darwin’s children had an influence in his theory, and helped him develop it. Darwin took his baby son and compared it to a baby orangutan, and noticed that they both acted similarly when shown different things. In another experiment, he made different noises to see how his son would act. These experiments show that different people react to things differently.

Personal Beliefs There is some controversy to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, some people don’t believe in it due to their own beliefs. Nick and I are believers in the Theory of Evolution. In the many years following the release of this theory, science has found evidence that corroborate The Theory of Evolution

Sources http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/darwin-and-his-theory-of-evolution/ http://www.biography.com/people/charles-darwin-9266433#voyage-on-the- hms-beagle https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233559656_Darwin's_Contribution_t o_the_Study_of_Child_Development_and_Language_Acquisition http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160315-did-charles-darwin-use-his- children-for-science