Darwin
Students and faculty members gathered at N.C. State’s David Clark Labs Wednesday to celebrate the life and influence of Charles Darwin with evolution-themed food.
The event, organized by Jennifer Landin, a professor of science education at N.C. State, offered a wide variety of treats ranging from cookies shaped like insects to Darwin-themed cupcakes. In addition to the snacks, participants took a quiz about the scientist’s life.
“The purpose is to celebrate Darwin’s life and contributions to the field of biology and to just appreciate an all around great guy,” Landin said.
Large pieces of artwork such as paintings of a giant trilobite and a prehistoric anthropod and a cutout picture of Darwin painted by Landin were displayed near one of the entrances to David Clark Labs in appreciation of Darwin and the event.
Faculty members and students alike participated in a Darwin trivia quiz game.
“It was very well attended with lots of participants in our trivia game,” said Alice Lee, a professor of microbiology who attended the event and graded the trivia quizzes. “It was nice to see a variety of people such as graduate students, professors and undergraduate students attend.”
The trivia quiz had 22 questions about Darwin’s life, the theory of evolution and books written by Darwin. According to Lee, the quiz was fairly difficult because the highest score on the quiz was 13 correct out of 22 with dozens of people participating.
Landin, who was the main organizer for the event, said N.C. State has organized Darwin Day for four years to coincide with Darwin’s birthday. This year, unpredictable weather pushed the event back a week.
“We actually had planned some presentations that were much bigger, but this was delayed twice because of the weather,” Landin said. “It was supposed to be last Thursday, then we rearranged it to Friday and then to today. Darwin’s birthday was last Wednesday.”
Landin also said the event has been growing in attendance since the first event four years ago.
“We have expanded every year,” Landin said. “I got extra help from volunteers this year for which I am grateful, and we also had the outreach event, which [biological sciences research assistant] Holly Menninger helped organize, at N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.”
Some attendees said they enjoyed the event, especially the decorations and trivia.
“It’s the first time I have been at the Darwin Day Event,” Lee said. “We participated, had fun and learned something new about Darwin. I didn’t know he had 10 children.”
One of the tables at the event had a donation box with suggested donation amounts in exchange for artwork done by Landin. The artwork ranged from watercolor paintings of fish and finches to bumper stickers displaying “love evolution” and “EVO: teach evolution.”
Toward the end of the event, people started to disperse before trivia quiz prizes were awarded.
Landin plans to host another Darwin Day next year with more presentations and activities.
“Hopefully there will be no snow days next year,” Landin said. “I hope this expands even further, and I hope to outreach to more non-biologists next year to share the love of Darwin.”