ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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It is often suggested, fairly, that the theory of evolution is one of 
the more profound ideas that humans have ever come up with.  Combined 
with the facts that it's a fairly simple theory to teach and that 
it's a widely misunderstood concept among the general public, every 
science museum with a biology-related focus should seriously consider 
how to incorporate evolution into label content.  Purging a 
discussion of evolution from ISEN would be strange and sad, akin to 
purging discussion of heliocentrism from the Planetarium Listserve 
("the earth-centered versus sun-centered discussion just got _too_ 
tiresome!").

The United States is probably the only country in the world with a 
Creation Museum.  We probably even have more than one of these. What 
we need is not just listserve discussion and letters to the editor in 
support of evolution, but people like you all to start making 
evolution exhibits to address the ignorance and misconceptions that 
your visitors possess.

Although I think a separate thread for discussion of evolution would 
simply be yet another victory for anti-evolution participants 
(hopefully a minority, here!), I would support the idea of having a 
separate site on the Internet where ISEN members might collect 
photographs and related documents (handouts, activities) for existing 
evolution-containing exhibits -- to serve as a resource for other 
members who are motivated to develop similar exhibits.  At the very 
least, wouldn't it be mildly useful to have a list of museums (etc.) 
in the U.S. that have evolution exhibits, just so 
evolution-supporters on this list can contact the directors for more 
information?  Equally useful would be institutions that have found a 
way to educate (and entertain) visitors on the nature of science.

I would like to end by addressing Tinsley Davis's excellent comments 
from Boston.  She mentions that the listserve shouldn't revert to 
simply discussing choice of flooring materials.  I would like to 
suggest that, in fact, the floor of a science museum is a _wonderful_ 
place to put an exhibit on evolution.  The "tree of life" is huge, 
and displaying it graphically on the floor of a large lobby might be 
visually and pedagogically powerful.  Here is an example on how to 
incorporate graphics nicely:

	http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Tree_of_Life.gif

But the concept could be applied easily to other branches of life, or 
to the entire menagerie (if you had a lot of space) with the possible 
exception of viruses. The label at the base of the tree (near your 
entrance) might read, "Stand here--your ancestor was a single celled 
organism that evolved 3.8 billion years ago. Walk along the tree 
towards "humans" and look at the branches that represent your cousins 
on this planet."  Or something less patronizing.  Kids would love it.

Colin Purrington
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/index.html

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