A group of schoolchildren from Beijing recently visited Nottingham to learn about Charles Darwin and his theory of Evolution.
A group of 41 pupils came to visit the city as part of a summer project.
The tour was organised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and the children visited museums and other sights of interest across the UK, including the Lake District, Isle of Skye, North Wales, as well as museums in Nottingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, London and Oxford.
The children were able to visit the Nottingham Natural History Museum at Wollaton Hall, where they were given a special guided tour by the Curator of Natural Sciences – Dr Adam Smith.
The Darwin study tour was developed by Dr Wang Qi, of The University of Nottingham, who established links with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Paleozoological Museum of China during the University’s ‘Cultural Visiting China’ mission to Beijing in 2014.
The children spent the afternoon visiting the University’s Zoology collection in the School of Life Sciences where they were hosted by the MSc in Biological Photography and Imaging.
There were a number of activities, led by Dr Tom Hartman and they were able to see and investigate some of the natural history specimen collections at the University and meet with leading academics in this field.
One of the children, Carlos Wang, said: “This museum was quite different to others I have been to because it creates the real environment for each animal and insect.”
“This means that we can more clearly see how each creature would actually live in its natural habitat, which helps us to understand more about the life of the animal.”
– Carlos Wang, a school pupil from Beijing
Mr Huwen Wang, Director of the Science Popularisation Department at the Beijing Association for Science and Technology, said:
“We are very grateful to The University of Nottingham and Wollaton Hall for arranging this visit. The children have learnt a lot about evolution and they have really enjoyed their time in Nottingham.”
“We hope to be back again next year with another group of students.”
