Freemasons Big Science Adventures Competition

Announcement from the Royal Society of New Zealand

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Freemasons Big Science Adventures School Dvd Competition: Darwin And The Theory Of Evolution

This week, schools will receive a new challenge for students (Years 11-13) to make a DVD on topics related to Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution.

The Freemasons BIG Science Adventures competition has been running for four years, starting with the 2004 Transit of Venus, which linked the history of the discovery of New Zealand with the quest to find the distance from Earth to the Sun. In past years, students have won trips to the UK, Europe, the Antarctic, and this year to Greenland, where the team from Otago Girls High saw the effects of climate change first hand.

In 2008, one team (three students and a teacher) will visit Darwin's birthplace, Shrewsbury, and other places in the UK of significance in his life. Other finalists will win a place on a mystery voyage to a remote location around New Zealand.

The competition is open to all schools and Year 11-13 students. Teams must comprise three students and one teacher. Schools may submit more than one entry. Their DVD must be no more than five minutes long. Entries close 9 May 2008. Grand Master of Freemasons New Zealand, Barry McLaggan, said "We have enjoyed working with young people on this competition and seeing their creative approach to the different topics. No doubt there will be a lot of interest in next year's topic: evolution. Even though it is nearly 150 years since Darwin came out with his theory, ideas about our origins are still vigorously debated."

One of the options students will have is to make a video on New Zealand scientists working in the field of evolutionary biology. They may also consider the evolution of New Zealand plants and animals over the many millions of years since it separated from Gondwanaland.

From 1 July 2008, the Royal Society of New Zealand is starting an 18 month long celebration of the life and work of Charles Darwin, who was born in 12 February 1809. "On the Origin of Species" was published in 1859, though his theory was already causing quite a stir in the scientific community. At the urging of fellow scientists he had finally gone public: on 1 July, 1858, his paper entitled "On the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection" was read to the Linnean Society in London, jointly with Alfred Wallace's paper, which independently came to the same conclusions.

ENDS

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