Complete the lesson Who was Charles Darwin by mapping his voyage on the Beagle.
1. Use the world map (pdf) and excerpts from Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle (pdf). Each journal excerpt describes a location and includes a date and a latitude and longitude listing.
2. Trace Darwin's voyage by reading the excerpts. You will find that the journal excerpts are not in chronological order. The Voyage of the Beagle is a collection of many of Darwin's journals, and he arranged the entries in this book by geographical area rather than by time. Make a list of the longitude and latitude listings in the correct time sequence. Number them and then place these numbers in the place on the map that corresponds to their longitude and latitude readings. If you have room, label each location on the map with the date he visited.
3. When you are finished, connect the excerpt locations with a line. Start in England in 1831 and follow Darwin's route until he arrived back in England in 1836.
4. When you are finished with your map, you should illustrate it. Draw small pictures to represent the observations Darwin made as he explored places along his route. If you don't have room on your map, you may want to draw the illustrations on an additional sheet of paper and number them to correspond to places on the map.
5. For extra credit, add other places mentioned in Darwin's journal excerpts and letters to make a more accurate path.
