DARWIN DISCOVERY DAY: AN ANNUAL EXERCISE IN BRINGING OUR MESSAGE TO THE MASSES

Charles Darwin’s birthday offers an annual opportunity to showcase natural history exhibits, highlight their use as objects that lead to deeper understanding of the diversity of life on earth and how that diversity arose, and explain how the work of Charles Darwin has shaped our modern understanding of the origin of that diversity. The Michigan State University Museum observes an annual “Darwin Discovery Day” (DDD) during which museum curatorial staff and MSU faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students work toward helping visitors to realize the event’s goal of “Discovering Darwin, Celebrating Science”. The day’s activities are strongly skewed toward hands-on opportunities to examine natural history specimens, personal interaction with natural scientists, and the chance to ask questions of Charles Darwin himself (in the person of a Darwin scholar from MSU’s faculty). Visitor reaction is overwhelmingly positive, and a number of families are repeat visitors. Pre-event flyers (e-mail and paper) are sent to area science teachers, in addition to the regular Museum mailing list. The event is listed on MSU websites and the international “Darwin Day” website. Relatively modest donations from departments across campus, from anthropology to law to medicine to philosophy, fund the activities. Charles Darwin’s impact is not limited to the natural sciences, and the DDD organizing committee continues to explore connections to cultural and artistic outlets to weave the concept of physical and biological change through time into the fabric of campus and community life.