John Thomas Scopes Three exciting opportunities for teachers for the month of October, in the form of two webcast symposia on human evolution and a chance to have a visit from the Darwin Day Roadshow!
First, Bones, Stones, and Genes: The Origin of Modern Humans — the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Holiday Lectures on Science for 2011 — will be webcast on October 6 and 7, 2011. The lectures will address such questions as: Where and when did humans arise? What distinguishes us from other species? Did our distant ancestors look and behave like us? Featured are NCSE Supporter Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley, speaking on "Human evolution and the nature of science"; Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania speaking on "Genetics of human origins and adaptation"; John Shea of Stony Brook University speaking on "Stone tools and the evolution of human behavior"; and White again on "Hominid paleobiology." To view the webcast, register on-line with HHMI.
Second, Changing Humans in a Changing Environment — a symposium on evolution sponsored by the American Institute of Biological Sciences and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center at the National Association of Biology Teachers professional development conference in Anaheim — will be webcast on October 14, 2011. Featured are Rick Potts of the Smithsonian Institution speaking on "Evolution in an era of dramatic climate change"; Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University speaking on "What can chimpanzees tell us about human evolution?"; Susan Antón of New York University speaking on "Becoming human in a changing world: the early evolution of Homo"; and John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, speaking on "New discoveries from ancient genomes." To view the webcast, visit NESCent's website.
Third, the Darwin Day Roadshow is returning! The Roadshow is a project of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, in which NESCent staff shares their enthusiasm for evolutionary science with students, teachers, and the general public on the occasion of Charles Darwin's birthday, February 12. In 2011, the Roadshow visited nineteen schools across the country. As NESCent's Craig McClain wrote at Miller-McCune (May 15, 2011), "for all of us the Darwin Day Road Show was a gratifying adventure that no one will forget. From the landscapes with their silos, combines, center pivot crop circles, high school gymnasiums, to the indelible interactions we had along the way, we absorbed it all." And applications to host the Roadshow in 2012 are now being accepted — act soon, though; the application deadline is October 31, 2011.