University Of Pennsylvania Museum Offers A Darwin Day

Museum Joins Growing International "Darwin Day" Birthday Celebration Activities Leading Up to 200th Anniversary of the Evolution Theorist's Birth in 2009.

Sunday, February 11, 2007, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology offers it's annual Darwin Day and Evolution Teach-In, a free event held in honor of the 198th birthday of Charles Robert Darwin, the world-renowned author of On the Origin of Species -and the originator of thescheduled for Sunday, modern theory of evolution. (Last year's inaugural Darwin Day and Evolution Teach-In, scheduduled for Sunday, February 12, 2006, was cancelled due to a major snowstorm.)

The free day features short "teach-in" talks by experts in the galleries, a discussion forum in the "Science Café," and a physical anthropologist's corner with plaster casts of hominid skulls and other bones. Darwin himself (or a reasonable likeness) will be on hand to enjoy the festivities, delivering short readings of excerpts from his many writings. There will be a film, an ongoing children's workshop, a birthday cake and the opportunity to play some badminton, reputedly a favorite game of Darwin's.

"Penn Museum is delighted to be part of a growing, international chorus of classroom teachers, museums, universities and other organizations in celebrating the life and achievements of Charles Darwin," said Dr. Jeremy Sabloff, Penn Museum Director. "Darwin's theory of evolution has dramatically changed the way people study and think about our world. We are pleased to contribute to the international awareness effort by offering this celebration and public 'teach-in'- with some birthday cake and badminton thrown in for fun. We are especially looking forward to 2009, when we'll mark the bicentennial of Darwin's birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species."

University of Pennsylvania faculty from several disciplines are participating in the teach-in, offering attendees a variety of perspectives on the study of evolution. Dr. Louise Krasniewicz, Senior Research Scientist, American Section, Penn Museum, provides introductions to the speakers. The following experts offer 10 to 15 minute lectures several times throughout the afternoon:

"¢ Dr. Paul Sniegowski, Associate Professor of Biology: "Evolution: Just the Facts"

"¢ Dr. Michael Weisberg, Assistant Professor of Philosophy: "Why Evolution Matters"

"¢ Dr. M. Susan Lindee, Professor of History and Sociology of Science: "Darwin's Story"

"¢ Dr. Richard M. Leventhal, Curator, American section, and Professor of Anthropology: "How Culture Evolves"

At 3:00 p.m., the Museum Café plays host to a special afternoon session of the University of Pennsylvania's popular "Science Café" evening talk and discussion program usually held monthly at the Mar Bar in University City. Dr. Michael Weisberg, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Penn and the Museum's recently appointed Evolution Project chair, introduces the speaker. Dr. Ted Daeschler, paleontologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences, talks about some of his own, current research, involving active fossil collecting in Arctic Canada, with his talk, "Discovering an Evolutionary Link Between Fish and Land Animals: The Story of Tiktaalik Roseae."

The Museum Café serves up a (non-alcoholic) "Darwin Punch" and "Intelligently Designed Cookies" for the Science Café, and offers a Galapagos 2007 lunch menu for the afternoon.

The Museum is home to the world's largest repository of high-quality casts of hominid fossils, which provide an important teaching tool for educators at Penn and around the world. The event features a special Physical Anthropology corner with hands-on examples of important fossil casts of hominids from three million years ago to 100,000 years ago. Visitors can handle the casts and learn about some of the ways that physical anthropologists study the evidence for evolutionary change over time.

The teaching of Darwin's ideas about evolution has been hotly contested in the U.S. courts, from the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925 to the recent Dover, Pennsylvania school district court case of 2005. How many Americans today have read either On the Origin of Species or The Descent of Man, two of Darwin's most important works? As part of the Darwin Day teach-in, visitors have an opportunity to hear excerpts of these books and other Darwin writings, as read by Charles Darwin (or a reasonable likeness) himself. On the Origin of Species, and other books by and about Darwin and evolution will be on sale-(and 10% off)-in the Museum Shop for the day. Visitors who join the Museum at Darwin Day will receive a FREE copy of On the Origin of Species.

Visitors can relax in the Museum's Rainey Auditorium, where the first part of a classic, 13-part television BBC documentary, "Life on Earth" (1979) narrated by Sir David Attenborough, will be shown. The visually breathtaking series traces the development of life in its myriad forms beginning with primordial times.

Children and families can discover more about evolution with a hands-on, large-scale "Tree of Life" mural project organized and run by Dr. Colin Purrington, member of Pennsylvania Citizens for Science, with assistance from several of his students from Swarthmore College, where he is Associate Professor of Biology.

To make the celebration complete, there will be a birthday cake for Darwin, with free pieces for everyone-including Charles Darwin himself-while they last. Darwin, no doubt like the day's teach-in attendees, enjoyed taking a break from his work on occasion, and badminton was a game of choice. Visitors can take a lecture-break at the badminton set up in the Children's Lunchroom.

Penn Museum's Darwin Day and Evolution Teach-In is coordinated by Dr. Michael Weisberg, chair of the Museum's Evolution Project. Next spring, the Museum focuses on the implications of evolution for human beings today and into the future, with the opening of a major new traveling exhibition, Surviving: The Body of Evidence. -- www.museum.upenn.edu