Lattakia, Syrian Coast (SANA) – The 'Darwin Now' exhibition was opened on Sunday at the Amwaj Massar discovery center in Lattakia.

The exhibition, organized by Massar Project in cooperation with the British Council in Damascus and the Lattakia Directorate of Education, is part of a year-long event organized by the British Council to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir Charles Darwin.

The exhibition focuses on the life of Darwin and the methodology of his scientific research that led to him formulating his theories that caused a dramatic shift in scientific research, particularly his theory of evolution.

The exhibition was accompanied by a number of interactive activities involving students aged 12 to 15 with the help of a team of volunteers from the Amwaj Massar Center.

In a statement to SANA, Director of the British Council in Damascus Elizabeth White said the exhibition celebrates science as a higher value that influenced humanity, expressing the British Council's desire to expand cooperation with Massar Project.

For his part, Director of Media and Public Relations at Massar Project Anas Darqawi said the project aims to reach out through the exhibition to a wide age group in an attempt to build a closer relation with society, noting that Massar is working to benefit from the various activities organized by foreign cultural centers in Syria and other local and international organizations.

The Darwin Now exhibition was held in over 25 countries around the world in 2009, arriving to Syria first in Damascus and now in Lattakia. It is estimated that the exhibition will have visited 50 countries in Europe, North Africa, East Asia, North America and South Americas by the end of 2010.

Massar Project is a project by the Syria Trust for Development, providing a comprehensive national education program for Syrian children and youths ages 5 to 21. It is a non-governmental non-profit project that employs unconventional teaching methods in order to provide information to youths, inspire creativity in them and allowing them to understand themselves and the world around them, in addition to instilling a sense responsibility and citizenship.

H. Sabbagh