Evokids Days 2019
Event series for evolution in Düsseldorf with prominent guests & nationwide special campaign for teachers
"Nothing makes sense except in the light of evolution": this is the motto of the "Evokids-Tage 2019" ("Evokids Days 2019"), which will take place from 25 October to 3 November at the Düsseldorf Ballhaus. The 10-day event offers exciting lectures and workshops for young and old, as well as an Evolutionary Path on which the history of the earth can be trekked on 22 metres. School classes are guided through the exhibition and receive free admission to the Aquazoo. In addition, teachers in Germany can order the popular Evokids packages for evolution lessons free of charge.
The evolution exhibition will open at the Ballhaus Düsseldorf on Friday, 25 October with a vernissage in the presence of Bernd Kammermeier, who created the graphics for the Evolution Path. Dittmar Graf (Evokids co-initiator and director of the Institute for Biology Didactics at the University of Gießen) will welcome the guests and introduce them to the theme of the exhibition. Ralf König ("The Most Desired Man") will afterwards perform a multimedia presentation of his current evolution comic "Stehaufmännchen" (König's paraphrase for Homo erectus). On Saturday, 26 October, ethnologist Christoph Antweiler (University of Bonn) will talk about "Heimat Mensch - was uns alle verbindet" ("Native humanity - what unites us all") and primatologist Volker Sommer (University of London) will talk about "Der kultivierte Schimpanse. Zur Evolution des Wir-Gefühls" ("The cultivated chimpanzee. On the evolution of the sense of togetherness"). On Sunday, 27 October, lectures by physicist Georg Henneges on the "Evolution of the elements" and sociobiologist Eckart Voland on "Evolution of religiosity" ("Darwin meets God ") will follow.
From Monday, 28. October, to Thursday, 31 October, free guided tours for school classes through the Evolutionsweg exhibition will be offered, followed by a subject-related visit to the Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum. In addition, the artists of KRASS e.V. offer open workshops for children and young people from 9 to 16 years in the afternoon, creating a permanently growing installation of evolutionary images.
On Friday, 1 November, Bärbel Auffermann (Director of the Neanderthal Museum) will inform about " Zwei Millionen Jahre Migration" ("Two million years of migration") and the two science journalists Martina Preiner and Franziska Konitzer (Audible Podcast "Undoder zum Quadrat") will discuss the mysterious process of "abiogenesis", i.e. the transition from non-life to life. The series of Evokids events ends on Saturday, 2 November, with a lecture by Stefan Curth (curator of the Aquazoo) on "Evolution zum Anfassen - Zoos und Museen als Bildungsorte" ("Evolution at your fingertips - Zoos and museums as educational sites") and a closing lecture by Michael Schmidt-Salomon (Evokids co-initiator, philosopher and author) on the central importance of evolution theory for a contemporary worldview ("Evolution is everywhere"). Sunday, 3 November, is the last opportunity to visit the Evolution Path - and this opportunity should not be foregone, as the flyer to the series of events says: "Take your time for evolution - after all, it has also taken its time for you...".
Der Eintritt zu allen Veranstaltungen ist frei. Die "Evokids-Tage 2019" finden im Ballhaus im Nordpark statt (Kaiserswerther Str. 380, 40474 Düsseldorf, über den Parkplatz des Aquazoo rechts in den Park). Das Ballhaus ist erreichbar mit den Bahnlinien U78 und U79 oder dem Bus 760 (Haltestelle: Nordpark/Aquazoo). Gebührenpflichtige Parkplätze und Ladestationen für Elektrofahrzeuge sind vorhanden.
The 10-day event will be presented by the Evokids Project (sponsor: Giordano Bruno Foundation / Institute for Biology Didactics at the University of Giessen) in cooperation with the Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum, Neanderthal Museum, Düsseldorfer Aufklärungsdienst e.V., Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands, and KRASS e.V.