The ‘Darwin Day’ project promotes and delivers informal science education on the subject of evolution, in an economically efficient manner, to a broad spectrum of the general public. In addition, we have good evidence that our approach is an effective antidote to the politics of Intelligent Design. Our model, which we have already tested and found to be successful, consists of two significant and innovative elements.
First, we have constructed a website, http://darwinday.org, that serves continuously as an informal source of accurate scientific information on evolution for students and teachers at all levels. This website also contains detailed information on the topics of Charles Darwin’s life, his contributions as an important scientist, and evolutionary biology – including the molecular mechanisms that underlie the process of evolution. An independent measure of the success and respect give our Web site is the fact that over 146,000 Web pages use the phrase "Darwin Day", and around the time of Darwin Day, February 12 each year, the Net has over 1,100 clickable links to www.darwinday.org.
Second, using Darwin as a symbol, we promote annual Celebrations of Science and Humanity, sponsored by many other organizations at no cost to us. These activities take place close to Darwin’s birthday on February 12. To promote these Celebrations, we use a database, dynamic Web page generation of the Event list and a long list of public Supporters. We use targeted e-mail to encourage and publicize a variety of public lectures at universities, exhibits in libraries and museums, discussions, dramatizations, and other events open to the public, as well as private functions such as dinners and parties, focused on the scientific basis of evolution. (An exchange of books and reading of science articles are a popular activity at private events). In February 2006 there were over 650 informal educational Darwin Day events open to the public, which took place across America and in 13 additional countries. These activities are listed on our website under ‘Events’. In addition, we were covered by all the major news syndicates this year, appearing in over 150 newspapers, E-news articles and even on primetime TV evening news.
........... Investment Opportunity <===== OBJECTIVE We are seeking $155,000 to improve and expand the scientific content of our website and to greatly increase our outreach to the national and international communities. Our staff will be able to move ahead on plans that are already in place to expand our Web site http://www.darwinday.org in the following ways. 1. While our current website is attractive and very useful, there are areas where the content would benefit by expanding relevant material. For instance, the latter parts of Darwin's life, and his struggle with the revolution he knew he would unleash, should be more fully narrated. An overview of the reasons for recognizing evolution as a central concept of biology would be valuable in persuading people that logic and evidence support evolution by Natural Selection. As the Darwin Day movement grows, we need some technical improvements to the Web site so that our supporters can manage their own contact and Event details themselves. 2. We are active internationally but only in English. If funds become available we plan to make our website available on-line in 8 or 10 of the major languages of the world before Darwin Day 2007. Internationalization of our Web site will make it possible for us to reach out more vigorously to people, nationally and internationally! 3. The creation of additional freely downloadable materials for use by those who sponsor the many activities will improve the publicity and impact of Darwin Day Events. 4. Further expansion and automation of our extensive email outreach activities will allow us to reach many more people with a modest size staff. 5.Incorporate positional information (latitude/longitude, as from GPS devices and new cell phones) to allow spatially targeted organization and promotion of Events. The Web moves information freely, but people don't travel far for informal education. Positional information will allow us to publicize and organize Events and meetings that are close to people. 6. These and other improvements will greatly advance one of our major goals, which is to increase Darwin Day participation each year, building up to an impressive global celebration of Science and Humanity on Lincoln and Darwin's bicentennial birthdays, which both occur on February 12, 2009. ........................................ To achieve these goals we will expend funds to 1.Increase our current Web programmer from ˝ time to 1 FTE to (a) increase Web site scientific content, (b) automate handling of increasing email related to the Web site, and (c) coordinate translations of our Web site into other languages. We have volunteer translators for several languages currently available. 2.Hire two professional communications experts to assist EVENT sponsors. One would communicate with English speakers and the other would assist people using other languages, testing the automated translation capabilities on the Web using emails to communicate about Darwin Day EVENTS.
Political Aspects
The current political merit of DDC, in addition to its inherent scientific educational value, is that we confront the “Christian Right” with reasonable scientific truth and thereby address a timely and current topic in the public arena – that of the authenticity of evolution as a scientific reality – that stirs strong political emotions. Emotions lead to higher alertness and offer an opportunity for teaching and learning. People remember what excites them. For instance, many members of the general public have shown a strong interest in the structure of DNA and the function of the human genome, both because of their personal health and also in its relationship to the evolution of all other living organisms on this planet. We are making a special effort to associate an important recent message from DNA genetics – that all humans originated in Africa – with the idea that all ethnic groups are quite similar and deserving of equal treatment.
By a chance of history, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day in the same year, and we are linking them together as "The Two Liberators: Lincoln freed the American Slaves, and Darwin freed the Human Mind". We also point out that the Darwins were strongly opposed to slavery, and Emma Darwin's family, the Wedgwoods, had created the famous anti-slavery medallion "Am I Not a Man, and a Brother?" See http://darwinday.org/englishL/newsviews/darlin.html
Objectives
The objective of DDC is perhaps best expressed in our mission statement and long-term goals provided below. We feel strongly that the international science community has a significant role to play in meeting these objectives and we are prepared to reach out to them with increasing numbers of contacts to leading influential experts. An important factor that will assist us to grow rapidly during the next few years is that Charles Darwin’s bicentennial birthday is approaching on February 12, 2009. Already many organizations are planning to join in festivities commemorating that significant date.
Mission Statement:
The dual mission of Darwin Day Celebration is to promote public education about science and in addition to encourage the celebration of Science and Humanity throughout the global community including the general public, private and public institutions, science professionals, science educators at all levels, libraries, museums, the print and electronic media, and science enthusiasts everywhere. Science is our most reliable knowledge system. It has been, and continues to be, acquired solely through the application of human curiosity and ingenuity and, most importantly, it has provided enormous benefit to the health, prosperity and intellectual satisfaction for our human existence. These are worthy achievements for all people to celebrate!
Long-term Goals
Concurrent with science education, we hope to stir the ethical senses of the educators. Teaching about Science and Humanity is likely to increase ethical sensitivity among the scientists who speak at these Darwin Day events. Science has a history of, and celebrates the process of, making decisions not on the basis of power, but on the basis of rational thought about scientifically tested facts. This method differs from political decision making, where oratory, numbers of votes, chance alliances of mutual benefit among the political actors, and distortion of reality in public presentations are the common technique of making political decisions.
We want to teach nonscientists about the principles of science, and to teach scientists to become more active in democratic societies. In the long term, we believe that war is not an acceptable way to resolve disputes. The warrior's paradigm of the most destructive army making the rules has been applied throughout our human history, from the sticks, stones and spears of ancient tribal conflicts to modern weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately modern scientists have been complicit in acquiring the basic knowledge that permits development of disease causing chemical and biological agents, and the development of ever-increasing explosive power. Darwin Day Celebration with its world wide reach and emphasis on both Science and Humanity, aims to influence scientists to take more responsibility by weighing whether they should cooperate with those seeking political power through aggression or by building a more ethical basis for the resolution of conflicts, particularly those at the international level.
....................................... Strategy To accomplish its mission, Darwin Day Celebration will maintain an attractive website that provides potential participants with extensive educational material, together with examples, and appropriate suggestions, of ways to develop effective celebration Events. All participants are invited and encouraged to register their Events on Darwin Day's website, in order to both advertise their celebrations and to develop a sense of common purpose among all participants. We invite subject experts to visit our website and offer them non-monetary assistance on how to initiate an educational Event appropriate for their institution. The broader demonstration is that inexpensive transmission of information through the Web can be coupled with informal, social gatherings, for high effect. There is a worldwide movement toward open access to scientific publications, and we are demonstrating how easily new discoveries can be transmitted to interested people, and how emotionally charged topics can be used to increase retention of scientific principles. Also, technical expertise is widely believed to be a major requirement for national economic success. We are demonstrating an effective way to translate discoveries into the content of lifelong learning. Further, the Internet is reaching all of humanity, and what is taught on our website is learnable by all people! These same strategies, which have worked so well in English speaking countries, will be applied to the international community as we translate our website into the languages which are used by most of the world’s people. Over time Darwin Day Celebration will maintain and increase its ongoing international outreach effort, using all means at our disposal, such as lists of names and email addresses in the categories named above, mailings by cooperative scientific and ethical organizations, personal referrals by existing supporters in order to encourage participation. Press releases, email announcements and even surface mail invitations will be employed to promote this worthy cause. The countdown to 2009 – Lincoln and Darwin's 200th birthday – is particularly important and is underway. We hope you will join this effort and experience the satisfaction of participating, along with many others, in the establishment of a positive celebration that reaches out to all the peoples of the world, encouraging them to recognize that we are all part of a Global Community! We believe it’s an idea whose time has come! We firmly believe and have evidence to show that the Darwin Day project brings numerous local, national and international groups together. Thus it has the potential to move all societies progressively forward. To appreciate this aspect of our work we suggest that you visit the EVENTS section of our website www.darwinday.org or use your search engine (such as Google) to see how widespread ‘Darwin Day Celebration’ has become. Having used advanced technologies to communicate with many groups around the world in a common cause, we feel strongly that those who join and financially support us can expand a movement that employs verifiable scientific knowledge, (our finest knowledge system), in a positive way. Supporters can help reduce tensions by promoting a new paradigm which will resolve local, national and international conflicts – namely the use of verifiable scientific knowledge together with intellectual maturity and rational thought. ......................................... "Opportunity - Explain what opportunities the timing of your project seizes" ................................................................................. Differentiation The ’Darwin Day’ organization is unique because there is no other organization that is doing what we have done successfully for the past 6 years. We have been able to show that our approach is a successful model with which to promote appreciation for what humans have achieved through scientific thinking throughout history. As Darwin’s loyal friend Thomas Huxley pointed out in the publication of his collected essays, Darwiniana, in 1893, “We are all scientists.” (See http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6919 or page 5-10 of Darwin Day Collection One, edited by A. Chesworth et al., Tangled Bank Press, 2002). Clearly Darwin himself has become an internationally acclaimed figure, whose influence on progressive modern thought continues to be both profound and pervasive (See Ernst Mayr, Darwin's Influence on Modern Thought, Scientific American, July 2000. Scientific knowledge is gained through individual and collective application of human curiosity and ingenuity! These human characteristics have greatly improved our existence and deserve to be celebrated! Science, our most reliable knowledge system, has provided enormous benefit to the health, prosperity and intellectual satisfaction of our human existence. These are worthy achievements for all people to celebrate! The model we have developed is very cost effective, because we promote both science education and the recognition of human accomplishments by asking other organizations, institutions and private individuals to produce Events. They use their own personnel, facilities and finances in response to our website and our encouragement. Our budget is modest precisely because our idea is innovative and the benefits are so obvious that others are willing to spend some of their own resources to participate. .......................................... Organization and Board of DirectorsThis nonprofit corporation is governed by a five-member, Board of Directors that meets monthly to make decisions that guide the direction the organization. The members of this Board are Robert J. Stephens, Ph. D., Chair; Arthur M Jackson, Vice Chair; Benjamin Wade, CFO; Mary White, Ph. D. Secretary; and one vacancy.
Advisors:
Staff
The team of people that would supervise and carry out the project proposed here are as follows:
............................ TEAM The team of people that would supervise and carry out the project proposed here are as follows: