Identifying Patterns in Observations

This activity challenges students to identify observations that Darwin and Wallace made during their travels, as shown in the short film The Origin of Species: The Making of a Theory. Students then evaluate claims about evolution by natural selection based on these observations.

Students review a list of observations made by naturalists Charles Darwin and Alfred R. Wallace. As they watch the film, which tells the story of Darwin and Wallace’s travels, students identify who made which observation from the list. They then use these observations to support different claims about evolution by natural selection and write a paragraph to summarize how the patterns of observations made by each naturalist led them to formulate their ideas.