In 1836 Charles Darwin spent 18 days in and around Cape Town.  In 2009, the year that we are celebrating his Bicentennial, the importance of his visit to the Cape aboard the HMS Beagle is being reassessed.  The actual route he followed has been plotted and forms what is now designated as the Darwin Trail.

The Darwin Trail Map has been produced to enable you to follow the route that Charles Darwin took when he visited Cape Town This easy to consult publication is the perfect companion for those that enjoy history, hiking and heritage. The map will be distributed to schools, tourism bureaux at the various spots that are significant on the Trail and a number of other institutions.

The map was launched at Stellenbosch University using their Interactive Telematic Technology system to broadcast via satellite to ten schools: Aloe Secondary, Sinethemba Secondary, Manyano High School, Perseverance Secondary, Ashton Secondary, Desmond Tutu Secondary , Noorder Paarl Sec, Mandlenkosi Secondary, Naphakade Secondary and Albert Myburgh Secondary.
Introduced by MEC for Education Donald Grant, the schools heard the story of Charles Darwin’s visit as the trail was brought to life by Dr Wilmot James MP and anthropologist Nonhlanhla Dlamini.
James, who is a DA MP and Shadow Minister for Higher Education & Training iinitiated the Trail project as part of the Africa Genome Education Institute Darwin200 celebrations: a project to create greater awareness of Darwin’s legacy.

SKIN is a controversial film which tells the true story of Sandra Laing, a girl born in the 1950s to white Afrikaner parents, but who was classified black under apartheid because she displayed the physical attributes of a coloured person.

The film screens at the TriContinental Film Festival on Wednesday in Joburg and Heritage Day (September 24) in Cape Town.

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The Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum recognises teachers who use ICT (information Communication technology) in interesting and engaging ways. Cheryl Douglas, Programme Director of the Teaching Biology Project, was one of the South African winners who attended the Pan-African Innovative Teachers Forum held in September in Mauritius.  Cheryl won the collaboration section for her project ‘Teaching for the Future: make learners aware of global issues with an emphasis on sustainability’ and will now attend the worldwide finals to be held in Brazil in November. The Teaching Biology Project website contains content on evolutionary biology developed by Cheryl and the website offers opportunities for teachers who have attended the Teaching Biology Project conferences to access resources and collaborate with colleagues as Cheryl uses the same principles on this site as she did in her winning project.