Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and I'm really glad you've decided to join me for today's lesson.

I'm really looking forward to this one because we're going to be learning lots of fascinating information about one of Britain's most impressive scientists.

I think you're really going to enjoy it, so let's get going.

Today's lesson is called Researching Charles Darwin's Life, and it comes from my unit called "Charles Darwin: biographical writing." By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to tell the story of Charles Darwin's life up to and including his visit to the Galapagos Islands.

So the research we do today is going to be building towards us writing our own biography of Charles Darwin, so it's really important that we try and remember this information that we research.

And to help us do that, we're going to do one of my favourite things, which is to make a text map, which is a series of little drawings that help prompt our brain to remember information that we've learned.

I think you'll find it really useful as a way of getting these facts stuck in your brain.

So let's have a go.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson, my turn, your turn.

Biography.

Theme and text map.

Well done.

So a biography is a nonfiction text written about someone's life, and a theme is a central idea the writer intends the audience to engage deeply with.

For instance, a paragraph can have a particular theme.

And a text map is a visual representation of a series of events where pictures represent events and it can be used to orally rehearse events to embed them in our memory.

So here's our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start off by learning about Darwin's life, and then we're going to tell the story of Darwin's life orally using a text map to support us.

So, as we said, we're gonna be writing a biography of Charles Darwin, and you can see a picture here of Darwin in his later years.

Darwin is one of Britain's most famous scientists, and he contributed a lot to our knowledge of evolution.

That's the process of how species came to be as they are today, whether they're plants or animals.

And in order to write that biography, we're going to need to know lots of factual information about Charles Darwin and his life.

And we're going to focus in our biography on his life leading up to his work on evolution, what we might call his formative years, the years when he was thinking, researching and finding out about animals and plants which have fed into his theories and his ideas about evolution.

So why do you think Charles Darwin is a suitable subject for a biography? Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you or have a think by yourself.

Well done, good ideas.

Now, we can write a biography of anyone.

We could write a biography of you or me, but we tend to write biographies about famous people or people who've contributed a lot to our society.

And because Darwin's ideas were so influential and so world changing in many ways, he's a really appropriate subject for a biography.

So let's start learning about Darwin's life.

And you can see here Darwin's family childhood home, which is still standing today.

It's in Shrewsbury, which is a city near to Wales in the west of England, and it's called The Mount.

And you can see it's a very, very big house.

So we're going to cover a few facts now about Charles Darwin's early life.

So we're thinking about the theme of his early life just for a few minutes.

So he was born in 1809 into a wealthy family with six children.

His father was a famous doctor and his mother had a family fortune.

So she'd inherited lots of money from her family.

He already had an interest in science from an early age.

He loved doing science experiments with his brother in their garden shed, and they grew crystals together and they burned chemicals as well.

Unfortunately, his mother died when he was just eight, and Charles was sent away to boarding school.

That's a school where you stay over every night.

Now, he didn't do very well in school.

He did quite poorly, and part of the reason for that was that he didn't want to be stuck inside in a classroom.

He wanted to be out in nature, collecting things like eggs and shells and beetles and moths.

So we can see that even as a young boy, he had a real interest in science and in nature.

So are the statements below true or false about Darwin's early life? Pause the video and decide, and I'd like you to be able to explain all your answers, whether they're true or false.

Have a go.

Well done, good job.

So A says, "Charles Darwin had a privileged childhood." If you're privileged, you're quite advantaged, aren't you? So that is true.

He was born into a very wealthy family and they had that big house that we saw.

B says, "Nothing bad happened to Charles during his childhood." Sadly, that's false, isn't it? Unfortunately, his mother died when he was only eight.

C says, "Charles showed no interest in science as a child." That is definitely false.

He loved doing experiments with his brother in the shed and he loved collecting things in nature as well.

D says, "Charles struggled at school," and that is true, and we said the reason was he didn't really want to be inside.

He wants to be outside in nature, enjoying everything it had to offer.

Really well done if you got to all this.

So now let's learn what Darwin did after leaving school.

So once he left school, his father sent him to Edinburgh University to study medicine, that's when you train to become a doctor, and he didn't enjoy that.

Now, at this time, going to university would've been very, very rare.

So Charles was lucky to go, but unfortunately he didn't enjoy the subject he was studying.

He didn't enjoy medicine.

So then his father sent him to Cambridge University and here he studied to become a vicar instead.

Now, he didn't so much enjoy studying to be a vicar, but he loved that he had lots of free time and he spent that collecting insects.

That was one of his favourite hobbies.

So even though he didn't love studying to be vicar, he enjoyed being at Cambridge because it gave him time to enjoy that hobby.

After university in 1831, something absolutely life changing happened to Darwin.

He was asked to join a round-the-world scientific voyage on a ship called HMS Beagle, and that voyage ended up lasting five years.

And here is an artist's impression of the HMS Beagle.

Now, there weren't colour photographs in those days, so this is just an idea for what it might have looked like, but it was a sailing ship like this.

It went all the way around the world and it spent five years away from Britain.

Now, it wasn't sailing that whole time, it docked in lots of different places and they spent many weeks exploring those places, looking at nature.

So while he was on this incredible five year round-the-world voyage, Darwin collected over 5,000 animal specimens and made thousands of pages of notes.

Now, specimens are samples of plants and animals which can be either dead or alive.

So they captured some animals and kept them alive, and unfortunately they killed some as well, to then study for science.

So we can see that Darwin has kept incredibly busy for these five years, observing everything that he saw in all these incredible places he was able to visit.

So, can you answer each of these questions now about Charles Darwin and that portion of his life? Pause the video and have a try.

Well done, good job.

So A says, "What professions did Darwin study for at university?" Professions are jobs that need training.

So he studied to be a doctor and to be a vicar.

B says, "What else did Darwin do while he was at university?" Well done, he spent lots of time collecting insects, which he really enjoyed.

And C says, "What did he do after leaving university?" So he was so lucky, wasn't he? He joined that round-the-world voyage of the HMS Beagle.

And during that voyage he collected specimens and made notes about what they saw in all these different places where they landed and spent time.

Really well done, good job.

So let's now talk about one of the most important stops the Beagle made on its journey, which was in the Galapagos Islands, and I'd encourage you to go away and have a look at some pictures and videos of the Galapagos Islands and the incredible wildlife that can be found there still today.

So the HMS Beagle visited the Galapagos Islands on its way back to Britain, and they're a group of islands off the coast of South America.

And you can see a picture here of a giant tortoise, a species of animal that lives in the Galapagos Islands.

And these tortoises can live for over a hundred years, longer than human beings.

So they're absolutely incredible creatures.

So let's see what he did on the Galapagos Islands, because this was a visit that was life changing as well, and actually was very influential for all of us and our understanding of evolution.

Let's get an idea of what he did there.

So Darwin was really excited to visit the Galapagos because there were active volcanoes there and he was really interested in geology, the study of rocks.

So he was really excited about the idea of being able to be close to a volcano that was on the verge erupting or in the stage of its lifecycle where it could erupt.

And he stayed there for five weeks with the rest of the crew and they collected lots and lots of specimens.

They collected fish and snails and iguanas and insects and birds.

And the crew also saw these giant tortoises.

Now, unfortunately, they actually captured some and even ate one in soup to see what it tasted like, and apparently Darwin quite enjoyed it.

Darwin actually also even rode on one of these tortoises when he was in the Galapagos, because they're so huge.

I don't think he could stay on for very long, but he wrote about it in his notes as well.

Now, he also collected several species of finch, and finches are small birds, and he noticed that the finches on each different island in the Galapagos had different beaks, even though the rest of their bodies were very similar.

So they had similar bodies, but on different islands in the group, their beaks were slightly different and he wondered why that was.

Now, we'll talk about that later in the unit a bit more, but for now, just lock that away in your brain for later.

So can you match the beginnings and ends of these sentences about Darwin's time in the Galapagos? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

So A would say, "The Galapagos Islands are volcanic islands located off the coast of South America." B says, "Darwin collected specimens of many species including insects and iguanas." For C, "The crew were amazed to see giant tortoises and they even ate them for food." And for D, "Darwin noticed that the finches on each island had differently shaped beaks." Really well done for matching those up correctly.

So let's do our first task for this lesson.

We've now learned loads of facts about Charles Darwin's life, up to and including his visit to the Galapagos, which proved to be really important for the rest of his life.

So when you write a biography, we always group information by themes, by big ideas that link that information together.

So for each fact below I'd like you to decide which theme it relates to.

And our themes are Early Life, and we'll use the letters EL for that, his time at university and the trip on the Beagle, we'll use UB for university and the Beagle, and then his visit to the Galapagos, and we'll use G for that.

So for each fact in the table, can you write the letters that represent the theme it links most closely to? Pause the video and have a try.

Well done, fantastic effort.

So let's take a look.

First one says, "Charles collected thousands of samples and notes." Well that would be UB for his trip on the Beagle.

"Charles noticed differences between the finches." That's definitely the Galapagos, G.

"Charles was sent to boarding school at the age of nine." That is his early life.

"Charles was excited to see an active volcano." Well done, the Galapagos.

"Charles was born into a very wealthy family," is his early life.

"The round-the-world voyage lasted five years." That is from his time on the Beagle.

And "Charles studied to be a doctor and a vicar." Well, that's about what he did at university, so that's UB as well.

Really well done for grouping those facts by theme.

That's gonna really help you when you come to write because you've thought about how these facts link to each other.

Great work.

So we've now learned about Darwin's life.

Now we're going to try and tell that story to help it get locked in our memories.

So a text map is a useful way of learning information that is in chronological order by heart.

And you can see an example here of a text map I've written before to talk about World War II and some of the events that happened in Britain then.

And you can see I've got pictures and I've got full stops, I've got letters, I've even got some words, and I've got dates as well there.

So we use the pictures to represent key events.

So you might see there I've got a smiling face and a VE Day, and then a scene from a party and a street.

So I'm saying that people were happy at VE Day at the end of World War II, so they had parties in the streets.

So I've used pictures to show those events and we use full stops to separate out the events, or if you prefer, you can just use arrows.

And we're not trying to be artistic here.

This is really important.

Now I would struggle to be artistic anyway, but I haven't done my very best artwork here.

I've done little sketches that are going to help jog my memory about these events I'm trying to describe.

And when we learn a text map like this, we're not always trying to learn particular words off by heart.

What we're trying to do is to learn the sequence of events and say it to ourselves out loud, usually, in a way that makes sense to us so that we can remember the events.

This is all about helping our memory and that will make it easier when we come to write.

So here's an example of a text map for the start of Darwin's life.

So you can see here I've written 1809 and I've got two bank notes.

So here I'm saying he was born in 1809 and he was born into a rich family.

Over here I've got a picture of two people and then I've got the number six above them.

So I'm actually talking about six children, and then I've got a big house and I've written "Mount" to remember that name.

So here I'm saying there are six children in the Darwin family and they live in a huge house called "The Mount." So these are just prompts for me to remember those facts.

For this one, I've got a tombstone and I've got the number eight above it to remind me that his mother died at the age of eight.

And then I've just got a teacher that's reminded me that he was sent to boarding school.

And finally over here I've got some pictures of a hill and then I've got an arrow showing that he wanted to be outside.

And then I've got a basket with arrows going into it to show that he liked to be collecting things.

So I've circled the two remaining sections of my text map here.

Which events in Darwin's life might be represented by these? What do you think I was trying to say in these two sections that I've circled? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good job.

So if you look at this first one, we've got an F above a stethoscope and we've got an M above a pile of coins.

So here I'm saying his father was a doctor and his mother had that huge family fortune.

And then I've tried to draw in the next one a little scientific beaker, and then that's supposed to be a shed.

So I've got he loved science experiments and he did them in the garden shed with his brother.

So you've done a really good job there of working out what these pictures mean.

What is each section of our text map trying to say? Really well done if you worked those out.

So now it's your turn.

I've drawn the first part of the text map for Darwin's life.

I'd like you now to try and draw a text map for all the events that we've talked about in Darwin's life, from his birth in 1809 to his visit to the Galapagos Islands.

Remember, each picture should only take a few seconds.

This is not an art lesson, and you can tell that from my example as well.

I'd like you to use full stops to separate out the different events as I've done in my diagrams. Or you can use arrows if you prefer.

And it is fine to include a few words and numbers if you find that helpful.

So I wrote that word "Mount" because I knew I might forget that.

So if you want to include the word Galapagos, that would be absolutely fine as well.

So pause the video and have a go at making your text map for the whole of Darwin's life, from his birth up to the visit to the Galapagos Islands.

Have a go.

Really well done.

Good job.

So here's an example of how the text map for the rest of our events in Darwin's life might look.

You can see I've got him going to Edinburgh, I've put "Cam" for Cambridge.

I've got him happy with an insect there.

I've got the Beagle in 1831.

I've got those 5,000 specimens.

I've drawn the Galapagos Islands, him being happy about that volcano, five weeks of collecting things.

I've got that poor giant tortoise going into a pan of soup.

I've got him collecting those finches and I've tried to draw him there noticing the different shaped beaks on different islands.

And my final question mark to say that he's wondering why.

Hopefully you actually have something similar.

I hope you really enjoyed that task as well.

Good job.

So now we've got the text map.

We can use it to say the story out loud using each picture to represent a complete sentence now.

So for instance, this picture could represent, "He was born in 1809 into a wealthy family." For this one, I could say the sentence, "The six Darwin children lived in a huge house called 'The Mount.

'" For this one, I could say, "When he was eight, his mom died and he was sent to boarding school." And for this one, "He wanted to be outside collecting items from nature." So I've made a complete sentence from each section of my text map.

Now it's your turn.

What could be the sentence we're trying to say for each of these two sections? How could you say this, these events, as a complete sentence? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, good job.

So for that first one, maybe you said something like, "His father was a doctor and his mother had a huge family fortune," and for the second maybe you said, "He loved to do science experiments in the garden shed with his brother." Really well done if you managed to translate those pictures back into complete sentences.

Good work.

So now let's try and do that for our whole text map that we have.

I want you to look at your whole text map for the whole portion of Darwin's life we've talked about.

And you're gonna try and say that whole story out loud.

I want you to point to each picture and say a sentence out loud that it represents.

And remember, we're just using simple language here, we're just saying the events and nothing more.

So lots of your sentences will just start with "he" or with "Darwin," 'cause remember, we're writing in the third person, or we're speaking here in the third person.

So I've got my example there for the science experiments in the garden shed.

It's simple language.

I've just said one sentence to represent that one event that's shown with my full stop.

That's where my event ends.

So starting with your first picture and going all the way to the end, can you say your whole text map for Darwin's life story out loud? Have a go.

Well done, fantastic effort.

So I'm going to go through little bit by little bit what you might have said for each section.

So for my first section here, here's how I could have translated it into complete sentences.

I would've said, "He was sent to Edinburgh University to study medicine, but he didn't enjoy it." Then my next picture, "Then he was sent to Cambridge University to study to be a vicar." That's what my cross represents.

Then my next picture, "He enjoyed it there because he had time to collect lots of insects." And my final picture, "In 1831, he joined a round-the-world voyage on the HMS Beagle." Then I've got the next section.

Here I would've said, "He collected over 5,000 specimens and made lots of notes.

They went to the Galapagos Island near South America.

Darwin was excited because there were active volcanoes.

They stayed for five weeks and Darwin collected lots of samples." And then for my last section, I might have said this, "The crew saw giant tortoises and made them into soup! Darwin collected lots of finches and he noticed that the finches on different islands had different shaped beaks to each other." And then my last one, that question mark, "He wondered why this was." So, I bet you did a fantastic job of converting your pictures into complete sentences there.

Now the more you do that, the more you become fluent in translating your pictures into sentences out loud, the more easy you're going to find it when you come to write.

So I would encourage you to go away and practise your text map lots and lots and lots until you've got it really embedded in your head.

Either way, you're going to have a great amount of knowledge now that you're remembering really well because of having written and rehearsed that text map.

It's a great way of helping out your memory.

And it's fine to add extra details to a text map if you think you've missed important events.

So perhaps you missed out that question mark at the end for Darwin wondering why those birds had differently shaped beaks.

So that might be one you want to add in now to your text map.

Really good job, great effort.

So let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We learned that because a biography gives factual information about a person's life, we need to do research before we write.

We also learned that we group information in a biography by theme, for instance, into different parts of a person's life.

And we learned that we can represent key events of a person's life on a text map and learn to say this out loud as a way to remember the events really well.

Really well done for all your effort in this lesson.

I love how much effort you've put into trying to remember these facts using your text map.

Like I said, it would be really helpful to you to go away and rehearse that text map a few more times to get those facts really embedded into your brain.

Great work and I hope to see you again in a future lesson.

Goodbye.