Heroes of the Natural World

We will be celebrating the work and lives of some of the most important biologists of all time. Mary Anning, Charles Darwin, Rosalind Franklin, and Rachel Carson changed our understanding of the natural world. This event celebrates their contributions.

Charles Darwin helped humankind understand life on earth through his theory of evolution. Join us for a tree of life scavenger hunt to mark Darwin's achievements!

Mary Anning was a nineteenth century paleontologist. Through fossil hunting, particularly her discoveries of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, she changed our understanding of the history of life. Celebrate Anning's work by making fossilised sharks' teeth necklaces, preparing ammonite fossils, enjoying our fossil collection, and searching for real fossils in our fossil sandpit!

Rosalind Franklin's work was crucial to understanding the structure of DNA, which carries the instructions for how living things grow and function. To celebrate Franklin's work, we'll be extracting DNA from a banana!

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist who also wrote "Silent Spring", which helped people understand the impacts of human actions on the environment, especially birds. We'll be celebrating Carson's work with bird-themed craft and ocean jenga!

If you have a dinosaur/explorer/Victorian outfit, please wear it - we'll be wearing ours!