Support will enable participation of 24 graduate students at the World Summit on Evolution in the Galapagos, June 9-12, 2005. This conference will be held on Ecuador's Galapagos archipelago, the islands that helped spark Darwin's revolutionary ideas that changed how we view the Earth's biota. Through a series of presentations and discussions, outstanding leaders in evolutionary science will address major questions, including: What is the evidence for the theory of evolution? How has each field and their respective approaches deepened our understanding? And where are the future horizons? Bringing together international experts and students for debate in this supremely special location will help answer these questions and hopefully lead to decisions that will shape the direction of evolutionary science in the foreseeable future.
The Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) is hosting this conference to celebrate the opening of its Galapagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS), and to further its academic mission and the promotion of conservation of the Islands. Discussion and debate is expected to be lively.
Graduate student participation is vital to this World Summit on Evolution, because their inclusion will add further intellectual as well as cultural diversity to the views and opinions expressed throughout the conference. Because the sessions are uniquely focused on facilitated debates rather than lectures, graduate students will be able to participate directly in the conference.
The Summit is one part of a larger program to teach and encourage understanding of evolution in Ecuador and in other Latin American countries. Because evolution is not a topic that is generally included in secondary school curricula, an important impact of the Summit will be to develop a series of programs and events designed to promote the understanding of evolution among high school students and the general public. These events will include talks and discussions, to be held in three of Ecuador's largest cities, and will present science and evolution in an easy-to-understand level during the academic year. It is estimated that this outreach program will attract about 5,000 students and 1,500 from the general public in Ecuador alone, and will potentially reach thousands more via virtual links. Presentations focusing on several evolutionary themes will be made by Ecuadorian scientists and selected international speakers.
The contents of these presentations and from the Summit will be used by faculty from USFQ to prepare a textbook on evolution at the high school level. This book will be published in Spanish for use throughout Latin America. Additionally, USFQ is organizing other academic activities such as a high school essay contest that will focus on evolutionary topics. The momentum generated by this conference will help to further the scientific literacy of Ecuadorian high school students. Students will be exposed to the main concepts of current evolutionary science to gain a better appreciation of the importance of preserving the Galapagos Islands for future generations, the results of which are expected to inspire a new generation of Latin American scientists.
