Notes for students

Skills

The student activities section will give you an idea of the questions to ask when trying to find information from primary sources.

In some of the activities, you are also asked to think about your own ideas – this is so you can understand the process of developing a scientific theory. Wallace was an excellent ‘thinker’, but it takes practice!

These are the skills you will practice:

• Research, select, analyse and interpret information from primary sources
• Evaluate the usefulness of the sources you choose
• Use the provided interpretations as a starting point to construct logical arguments and support conclusions with evidence

Research project

You can also use the Wallace Collection to help with the literature review for the Perspectives on Science course, if you are doing a research project about evolution. This might fit into the topic of Scientific Revolutions, or even The Origins of the Universe or The Beginning and Ending of Life.

Using primary sources

Primary sources are the handwritten letters, notes and notebooks, written by people (e.g. Wallace) at the time in history you are studying. This also includes photographs, certificates and other documents.

Secondary sources are articles and biographies about Wallace. These might contain opinion, speculation and bias, depending on where articles were published. Also look out for factual errors.

If you write an opinion or a conclusion, you need to provide evidence to back it up. This is usually a direct quote, for example from a letter.

References

Whatever primary sources, newspaper articles, biographies or textbooks you use, you must write a reference. For example, if you used one of Wallace’s personal letters you need to write the following:

By permission of the Board of Trustees at the Natural History Museum:
Author of letter, date of letter, title of letter, catalogue number (e.g. WP1/3/24), full URL and date you accessed it.