Join us for our monthly meeting as we celebrate Darwin Day with a special talk by Dr. Austin Hitt!
The Origin of Species Then and Now
Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) is one of the most discussed and controversial books of all time. Scientists celebrate the Origin as the start of biology as a science. Critics view the Origin as a materialistic book that undermines the moral fabric of society. The jubilation and the rancor elicited by the Origin continues today over 200 hundred years later. What makes the Origin phenomenon even more interesting is how few people, scientists and laypersons alike, have actually read the book. This talk focuses on clarifying what Darwin thought about evolution, explains the relevancy of his ideas for modern biology and discusses how his core theories have been amended in order to reflect our current understanding of how life on earth evolves.
About our speaker: Dr. Austin Hitt is an Associate Professor of Science Education at Coastal Carolina University. He is also a former high school science teacher and has earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of West Florida, M.S. in Zoology and Wildlife Science from Auburn University, a M.Ed. in Biology Education from the University of West Florida and a Ph.D. in Science Education from Indiana University. Dr. Hitt’s current research focuses on teaching science for conceptual understanding and investigating how college students conceptualize and explain the components of evolutionary theory