Happy Birthday, Darwin
UT Knoxville faculty and students share science and history to celebrate Darwin Day.
Biologist Charles Darwin would be 216 years-old in 2025, and museum educators and UT scientists at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture celebrated with Darwin Day in February. This annual event invites families to the museum for a fun-filled day of hands-on activities exploring themes of deep Earth history, evolution, and adaptation.
This year, the celebration joined the year-long Scopes Trial Centennial, observing the 100th anniversary of the legal case that challenged the teaching of Darwin’s evolutionary ideas in Tennessee. Darwin Day offered a variety of activity stations for visitors to explore the history and ongoing research and applications of biology, paleontology, and other related sciences—and even pose for photos with a giant Darwin puppet.
Science Puts Out the Welcome Mat
The McClung Museum offers free admission and serves as an educational space connecting the university with the local community. Through Darwin Day, the museum brings together visitors and campus researchers to explore the scientific process in a fun and welcoming environment.
“Science can often feel inaccessible,” said Laurel Philpott, student president of the Darwin Week planning committee and a graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “It’s essential to create opportunities for researchers to share their work in ways that are approachable and engaging for the general public.”
While peer-reviewed journals are a vital part of sharing scientific research, events like Darwin Day play a crucial role in promoting science education and sharing discoveries to a wider audience.
“I love seeing the interactions between faculty and children at these events,” said Philpott. “The kids who attend Darwin Day each year get an annual reminder that science is not only fascinating and fun—but that it belongs to them, too.”
Explore Ancient Local History
Alycia Stigall, Jones/Bibee Professor and head of the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Science (EEPS), presents activities along with paleontology faculty members from her department, which also sponsors the event. She and her students invite visitors to be Earth-history detectives at their station focused on the fossils of Tennessee.
“Visitors learn to identify fossils from the Knoxville and Nashville areas,” said Stigall. “Then they use their understanding of the modern counterparts of these animals—for example corals that live in the ocean today—to interpret what the environment was like here in Knoxville during the Ordovician Period when the local limestone, such as the Holston (Tennessee) Marble, was deposited.”
She calls their station “Fossils of TenneSEA” in reference to the sea environment of ancient Tennessee.
“My students and I are researching how Ordovician communities of Tennessee responded to climate change and species invasions,” said Stigall. “This station gives visitors a chance to connect to Earth’s history in their own backyard as well as the challenges facing modern ecosystems.”
Engaging Events
Some Darwin Day events are recognized as fan favorites, and some feature new lab groups and organizations that highlight evolution in their work.
“For instance, this year we have a combined animal behavior table that will use fun activities to showcase the work of a couple of newer UT faculty members,” said Philpott.
They also work to coordinate activities for the day that amplify relevant natural history exhibits at the McClung, such as X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out, a collection of x-rays that visually guide visitors through the evolution of fish.
“To complement this exhibit, we will have a UT faculty member and local fish expert leading visitors through a series of Darwin Day activities,” she said.
Other Darwin Day activity stations include:
- Paleoanthropologists will share fossil casts of early human relatives, and a pressure pad will let visitors experience the difference between walking on two legs versus four.
- Visitors can bring their own rock and fossil collections to be identified by experts.
- The Department of Anthropology will present their zooarchaeological collection and lead an animal-bone matching game.
- The UT Herbarium will showcase different types of moss, giving visitors a chance to touch them. Visitors can also view moss teeth via the microscope—they move!
- Visitors can design their own postcard-sized herbarium specimen using markers and plant-shaped stamps.
- A fish morphology activity will reveal how different species are built to survive in their environments.
- Visitors can pose for pictures with a giant Darwin Puppet, engage in a passport activity, and meet scientists and scientists-in-training from across UT.
“I hope that our younger visitors take away an early understanding that learning can be fun, and that there is space for them in science,” said Philpott. “Beyond that, Darwin Day is a reminder for everyone that by studying evolution, we gain insights into how species—including our own—adapt and change over time. This information can help us face challenges like biodiversity loss and climate change.”
By Randall Brown
