DARWIN IN GEOLOGY, CORE, AND UK STUDY ABROAD CURRICULA AT COLGATE UNIVERSITY

As part of our general education “Core Curriculum” requirement, all Colgate students must complete a course on “The Challenges of Modernity” in which Darwin's theory and its relevance in contemporary society are discussed. Students in my introductory geology course on “Evolution: Dinosaurs to Darwin” explore Darwinian principles and specific evidence for evolution that pertain to the origin and diversification of dinosaurs and extinct mammals. At the upper level, students in my “Darwin and the Victorian Age of Discovery” course – an interdisciplinary elective in Colgate's “Core Distinction” program – learn about the extent to which Darwin's theory reflected and transformed the scientific, socio-economic, political, religious, and literary-artistic world of Victorian Britain. This talk will focus on the Core Distinction course's format and on exercises that have been successful in helping geoscience and other students – on campus and in two UK study-abroad programs – appreciate how Darwin's travels, research, domestic life, fragile health, and delayed publication of On The Origin were shaped by the culture of the time. Pedagogical approaches will also be discussed that help students examine how Darwin's theory is extended today beyond biology to sociopolitical movements, religious debates, evolutionary psychology, and literary criticism. Especially valuable is the final research paper students must craft about an ethical question that they explore within an evolutionary context (genocide; human cloning; GM foods, etc.). The writing process itself reinforces course goals, as students must compose letters to and from Darwin (patterned after Dover's Dear Mr. Darwin), “corresponding” with Darwin about his theory's impact in the Victorian age and today. Teaching about Darwin in multiple formats to science and non-science students helps ensure that college graduates have a current and up-to-date understanding of Darwin's life and legacy.