Metamorphosis

• Have you ever watched a tadpole turn into a frog?
• Or a butterfly emerge from a cocoon?
• What about how different types of rock form and then change into other types?
• Or the changes that can occur when we mix different chemicals together?

Metamorphosis is the change of form or nature of a thing or person into something completely different. Some living things metamorphose. And some nonliving things do as well.

Growth

• Have you ever watched a plant grow from a tiny seedling into a beautiful plant?
• Or have you ever made a mistake, learnt from that mistake and then got it right the next time?
• What about how a building grows and changes from the laying of foundations, through the development of structure and support, to the final internal and external features?

Growth can be emotional, mental or purely physical. Like watching a man grow a beard or seeing a baby grow into child, teenager and then adult. Some people believe that meditation can help you grow spiritually, it can calm your emotions and help you feel differently about the world you live in. Growth can be about or come from a journey that we might undertake. And growth can refer to the ways we build structures like buildings, bridges or even cities.

Revolution

• Have you ever wondered how the Earth’s own revolution and gravitational pull from the Sun affects the ocean tides?
• What was the ‘Industrial Revolution’?
• What does it mean when we say we are in the midst of a ‘Digital Revolution’?

A revolution can be the movement of an object in a circular or elliptical course around another or about an axis or centre. Or it can be the rise of a new way of doing something, a new way of seeing the world, making the world different from what is was before.

Evolution

• Have you ever heard of Charles Darwin, and his ‘Theory of Evolution’?
• Or how a chemical can be affected to create a different substance?
• Or how has particular technological devices such as the telephone have changed over time?

Evolution is any process of formation, growth or development. In biology, that refers to the long term changes in organisms because of their relationship to their environment. Cultural evolution examines the ways human societies and cultures change and transform over time. And in the technological world, we can consider the development of technologies as a kind of evolution.

Mutation

• Have you ever wondered where your hair colour came from?
• Or why most of us can drink cow’s milk without getting sick (even though it’s meant for baby cows, not us)?
• Or why people who live high in mountains find it easier to breathe at high altitudes than the rest of us?
• Why does everyone on Earth not speak the same language?

And what about music mashups that combine songs to create some mutated version of both? Biological mutation – tiny changes in our genetic make-up that we pass on to the next generation – has created the amazing variety of life on Earth. Language mutation has led to the amazing diversity of different ways we humans communicate. And mutation occurs whenever things change by accident or on purpose, to create something different and new.

Adaptation

• Why do we live where we live?
• How come some animals can breathe underwater and others can’t?
• What will happen if the world gets too hot?

Adaptation means that different species of plants and animals can survive in different parts of the world under different environmental conditions.