Treasure chests stuffed with tools, seeds, flower presses and plant guides are being distributed to every state primary school in the UK to kindle children’s enthusiasm for science and botany.
The £2m project by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, called the Great Plant Hunt and spearheaded by Sir David Attenborough, is described as the biggest science project ever for 5- to 11-year-olds.
Visiting St Jude’s CE primary school in Herne Hill, south London, this week, Attenborough told the children they would be the “Charles Darwins of the 21st century” as he handed over the first of the 23,000 chests designed by experts at Kew.
Darwin himself frequently collaborated with his own children on experiments as they explored the landscape around his house, said Daniel Glaser, Wellcome Trust’s head of special projects.
Professor Angela McFarlane, Kew’s director of content and learning, explained: “We are facing a general skills shortage in science in the UK and nowhere is that more acute than in botany. By the time they reach secondary school, many children already feel science is not for them. By 16, the majority are lost to science, seeing it as dull and repetitive.
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As part of the project, children will be encouraged to go on “thinking walks”, as Darwin reportedly did when formulating his theories of evolution and natural selection. With no laboratory, he used the grounds around his home in Down House, Kent, to devise experiments and test his ideas.
The plant press in The Great Plant Hunt treasure chest is modelled on the one Darwin used. Among the specimens pupils are encouraged to collect are seeds which will be passed on to researchers at Kew’s world-famous Millennium Seed Bank. Inside the chests, the children will find details about the experiments they can do, along with storybooks, magnifiers, a plant identikit and a mini seed bank.
The Wellcome Trust is also involving secondary schools in its efforts to mark the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth. It has launched the Survival Rivals website providing free curriculum-linked science activities inspired by Darwin’s theory of evolution intended to show how his ideas are crucial to young people’s understanding of the natural world.
In May Kew will be inviting UK primary school children to take part in a mass observation study called the Great Plant Hunt Week. The data collected will be stored on the website and used by Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank.