Evolution and how to turn little kids into scientists

Hurrah for the Sunday Star Times of New Zealand and their feature about physicist Paul Callaghan, most recent winner of the Blake Medal an award given to commemorate NZ sailing great Sir Peter Blake. Science, sailing, where's the evolution?

Here: first of the key scientific concepts Paul Callaghan says we should understand is evolution:

"THE FIRST concept I would choose, even as a physicist, would be Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection. It's a really very beautiful idea."

His other big ideas:
2. Big bang
3. Our planet
4. DNA
5. Radiation and waves
6. Hot and cold
And how does the piece end?

"HOW TO TURN KIDS INTO LITTLE SCIENTISTS

1: Give them a compass. "It's this magical little thing: you turn it around and it always turns the same way. What's going on there?"

2: Put a magnifying glass in their hand. "They make things bigger, burn holes in things with sunlight, project images on the wall."

3: Get them to plant a seed. "It's just magic."

4: Float things and fly things with them. "Make model aeroplanes; give them this idea that we live in a fluid, and you make this little thing, and it skips across the room."

5: Give them a prism. Follow in Isaac Newton's footsteps and pass light through it, to make a rainbow."

New Zealand is on the replica Beagle's itinerary anyway (Darwin wasn't too impressed with the place, but it has scrubbed up well since) and Paul Callaghan and journalist Adam Dudding are on the invite-aboard-for-tea-and-cake list.