You never know who you might run into when visiting NIMBioS! NIMBioS Working on Group Biotic Interactions pose with puppets Wallace and Darwin on Market Square in downtown Knoxville, TN. The puppets were part of the University of Tennessee’s Darwin Day activities.
Around the world people are celebrating Darwin’s birthday this week and the science of evolution, and at the University of Tennessee, NIMBioS has been joining in the fun. Darwin Day Tennessee, a campus organization run by students in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Department planned a series of events, co-sponsored by NIMBioS. Highlights included a featured talk by Nobel Peace Prize winner Camille Parmesan and a bassoon sextet concert featuring a composition about Darwin’s voyage.
The week kicked off with a Teaching Evolution Workshop, organized by Sharon Clemmensen, graduate student in EEB; Kelly Sturner, NIMBioS Education & Outreach Coordinator; and Beth Adler, science teacher at Oak Ridge High School. About a dozen area middle and high school science teachers attended a night of sharing science curriculum and discussing current issues in evolution education in Tennessee.
Sharon Clemmensen, UTK graduate student in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, welcomes teachers to the Teaching Evolution Workshop