Evolution: Education and Outreach

Penny Gilmer, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University, passes along some information about how to access video of talks by the E. O. Wilson, among others, who spoke at a Florida State Darwin Year conference.

At FSU we had an Origins ‘09 event, with a series of speakers on evolution, all in remembrance of Darwin. See this link for the main page: http://origins.fsu.edu/. Then look at the schedule link from that page. Also from the main page you can see a retrospective video of all the events.

GEOSET has the full talks of three of the speakers: E. O. Wilson, Sean Carroll, and Don Johanson, in two screen set-up so you can see the Powerpoints and the speaker on different screens, and the audio is excellent. Go to this link: http://www.geoset.info/. Then go to the presenters’ list, and find the name, then click on Find Lectures, and then select the talk you want to hear. You need Silverlight to see the presentations (but the program is free). All three talks are excellent.

As well, Gilmer recommends visiting the Wilson Biophilia Center, near Niceville, FL, online, at http://www.eowilsoncenter.org/welcome.html, which she reports just opened in September, and presents interesting research on gophers, among other things. The Center describes itself as follows.

The E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center is an environmental education facility, serving students, teachers and professional audiences. Its mission is to educate visitors on the importance of biodiversity, to promote sustainable balanced ecosystems, and to encourage conservation, preservation and restoration.

Developed by Walton County Conservationist and Resident, M.C. Davis, on his 48,000-acre conservation land named Nokuse Plantation, The E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center is named after world renowned scientist Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology at Harvard University, for his life-long contributions to public education about the importance of conserving the world’s biodiversity. This two-time Pulitzer prize winner spent his formative years and performed his earliest scientific investigations in NW Florida and SW Alabama, and developed “biophilia—the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.”

Visitors at the E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center will have an opportunity to learn about
the natural environment through interpretive exhibits as well as an extensive trail
system through natural areas undergoing ecological restoration on the nature preserve. In addition, this facility will be promoted as a gathering place for local and regional scientists to conduct ecological research and participate in symposia that disseminate this research to the public. By offering weeklong curriculum that coincides with the Florida Sunshine State Standards, our young citizens will have a better understanding and knowledge for science portions of the FCAT, while promoting
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) subjects, and providing opportunities for inquiry, investigation and innovation so that in long-term we all may become better stewards during our journey on this planet.

Even if you can’t make it to the Denver conference of the National Association of Biology Teachers, you can still take part by way of the WWW. Jory Weintraub, EE&O editorial board member and Science Education and Outreach Program Manager at NESCent, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, reports the following.

Are you interested in evolution, but unable to attend this year’s National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) conference in Denver? Would you and your students like to learn more about how life evolves, adapts and flourishes in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, such as high altitude, in the deep-sea, or in caves? If so, you will be excited to learn that for the first time, the annual NABT Evolution Symposium will be accessible via live webcast on Friday, Nov. 13th from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, MST. Teachers and students are encouraged to tune in to all or part of the webcast for an opportunity to hear internationally renowned researchers discuss their fascinating, cutting-edge work in “extreme” evolutionary biology. Classrooms all over the world will even be able to submit their questions online and have the speakers respond in real time!

For more information, including speaker names, talk titles and times, and the link to view the live webcast, please see http://www.nescent.org/NABT09Webcast.php or contact eog@nescent.org for more information.

The EEO Blogger now tweets as @eeoblogger. So, if you are on twitter, sign up to follow the blog! Tweets will include evolution news, links to web pages about events, people, institutions, places, educational resources and other material of interest to those curious and excited about evolution.

Blog posts have been slow in coming lately—there’s one coming up about Philip Kitcher’s recent talk at Yeshiva University about the evolution of ethics.