Continuing Education Course Finder: EVOSG02-1a

Darwin and the Origin of Species (EVOSG02-1a)

Status: Open

Fee: $140.00

Timing: 10 sessions from October 7, 2009 - December 16, 2009 on Wednesdays, 10:15am - 12:15pm No class November 25

Course Description: Just two weeks before he died, Charles Darwin wrote what was to be his final publication. It concerned a tiny clam, which had been found attached to the leg of a water beetle in an English Midlands pond by a young naturalist, a shoemaker named Walter Drawbridge Crick. The shoemaker became the grandfather of Francis Crick, who, in 1953 together with the American James Watson, made a discovery that would eventually verify just about everything Darwin had deduced about evolution through his careful observations.

It has been 200 years since Darwin’s birth and 150 years since the publication of The Origin of Species. We will study Darwin’s life, especially his five year voyage on the Beagle, and learn how he came to understand the processes that have transformed life on Earth from its earliest forms to the vast diversity that characterizes it today.

This class will not serve as a forum for a debate on creationism or intelligent design vs. evolution.

Suggested summer reading (not required texts): The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution. David Quammen. 2006. Evolution’s Captain: The Story of the Kidnapping That Led to Charles Darwin’s Voyage Aboard the Beagle. Peter Nichols. 2003. Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin’s Lost Notebooks. Lyanda Lynn Haupt. 2006.

Format: Presentations from class members, with discussion

Instructor(s): Louise Moss, Nancy Nowak

Instructor(s) Bio: