The Charles Darwin Trust

The Charles Darwin Trust in the UK, around since 1999, has as its aims:

• To use Darwin-Inspired Teaching and Learning to promote excellence in science education
• To enhance the understanding of Darwin’s historical and contemporary significance.
• To improve and extend science literacy and the understanding of science.

Here is some more information about the Trust:

The Charles Darwin Trust uses the intellectual and cultural heritage of Darwin, through his approach to science and his work at Down House and in the immediate countryside, to inspire a deeper understanding of the natural world. The Trust achieves this through research and development of Darwin-Inspired education materials, and through developing programmes for teachers and schools. These programmes are delivered through collaboration with major organisations and at Down House. The Trust is seeking to adapt its programmes for availability online. The  case for the nominated World Heritage Site Darwin’s Landscape Laboratory [also see here] is based on the research carried out by the Trust into Darwin’s experiments and observations in the Downe area. The Trust aspires to improve public access on the web to the whole Darwin heritage. It is playing a leading role, with English Heritage and the Natural History Museum, in developing proposals for collaboration between all the main holders of Darwin material.

They have just sent out their first email newsletter (sign up here) with news of current projects, including How Science Works,    Advisor to English Heritage, Darwin–inspired Approaches, Darwin-Inspired Gardening, Darwin Explore!, and The Comedy of Change. The Trust is also a founder partner for the International Year of Biodiversity 2010.

If you are a science educator in the UK, be sure to check out the website for The Charles Darwin Trust and their resources.