Explore Evolution
Project
Explore Evolution is a major new partnership between science
museums and youth organizations to bring current research on evolution
to the public. The project features the work of scientists who are making
leading discoveries about the evolution of life. From rapidly evolving
HIV to whales that walked, the public is invited to explore evolution
in organisms from the very smallest to the largest.
Funded by the National Science Foundation’s Informal Science Education
Program with a $2.8 million three-year grant, the project supports the
creation of the Explore Evolution exhibit, a web site, a book presenting
inquiry-based activities for middle school-aged children, and an extensive
audience research program.
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Exhibit
Drawings by Angie Fox
Explore Evolution focuses on seven research projects that have
made a major contribution to our understanding of evolution:
- Charles Wood on the rapid evolution of HIV
- Edward Theriot and Sherilyn Fritz on the emergence of a new diatom
species in the fossil record
- Cameron Currie on fungus-growing ants and their coevolving partners
- Kenneth Kaneshiro on sexual selection among Hawaiian flie
- Rosemary and Peter Grant on Galápagos finches
- Svante Pääbo on the genetic ties between humans and chimps
- Philip Gingerich on fossil discoveries of walking whales
Interactive exhibits give visitors an opportunity to experience aspects
of the research conducted by the scientists. Explore Evolution opens on
January 14, 2006 at the Exhibit Museum of Natural History at the University
of Michigan. Each of the six partner museums the Explore Evolution consortium
will receive a copy of the exhibit for permanent display.
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Museum partners and youth groups
- University of Nebraska State Museum
- Exhibit Museum of Natural History at the University of Michigan
- Kansas Museum and Biodiversity Center at the University of Kansas
- Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the University of
Oklahoma
- Texas Memorial Museum at the University of Texas at Austin
- Science Museum of Minnesota
- Statewide 4-H groups in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Wyoming
- Huron Valley Girl Scout Council in Michigan
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Website
Visit
the Explore Evolution web site for more information and evolution resources
at http://explore-evolution.unl.edu/
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Book
Inquiry-based
activities for middle-school youth are available as a book, Virus
and the Whale, Exploring Evolution in Creatures Small and Large,
published by the National
Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Press.
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Audience Research
Research on how children and their parents construct their ideas about
evolution informs all aspects of the project. Educational psychologist
Amy Spiegel heads a research and evaluation team that includes developmental
psychologist E. Margaret Evans of the University of Michigan and biologist
Wendy Gram. Projects include front-end surveys on evolutionary thinking,
a study of visitors’ explanations of evolutionary events, visitor-based
formative evaluation, and research on project impacts.
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