This weekend marks the beginning of Darwin Week, a week-long event designed by the Mississippi State University biological sciences department and Biology Graduate Student Association to raise awareness of Charles Darwin’s scientific contributions and to celebrate his birthday.
The first thought that comes to a person’s mind regarding dodgeball would not normally be natural selection, but the biology department thins otherwise. The week of events will be kicked off with the “Survival of the Fittest dodgeball tournament” on Saturday. The tournament will be held at the Sanderson Center racquetball courts at 2 p.m., and each team will consist of a minimum of five players and a maximum of eight.
Teams will have to pay a $20 registration fee that will go toward prizes to the top three teams and support other events throughout Darwin Week.
Players must also abide by the intramural rules for dodgeball with only a few minor adjustments to the time of the rounds.
People who wish to attend the tournament may pick up registration forms in Harned Hall and submit them by 5 p.m. today. The $20 registration fee is also due at this time.
Diana Outlaw, professor in the biological sciences department, said the event excites students and gets the campus and community active.
“You don’t even have to play. People can come and watch others compete,” Outlaw said.
Darwin Week itself has been around for three years, and the tournament is also relatively new, as this is the second one.
Guiliano Cholisimo, BGSA vice president, and Tyler Schartel, Biology GSA president, helped create the tournament. Both play roles as officers and are responsible for organizing the event this year.
“Dodgeball is just the perfect analogy for natural selection,” Shartel said. “It’s one of those sports that anyone can play.”
The event itself, despite being new, has received plenty of publicity from people outside of the university. Last year’s Darwin Week featured a guest appearance by rapper Baba Brinkman, whose songs focus on science.
His appearance also brought with it an HBO film crew filming his tour throughout the South. This provided valuable exposure for the biology department and MSU.
The biology GSA expects a bigger crowd this year then last, as the tournament becomes more well-known.
Cholosimo said he hopes there will be more tournaments and events for Darwin Week in the future to continue their goals of raising awareness for the scientist’s contributions.
“We are trying to grow the event and expand our reach further out into the community and get people involved in science,” Cholosimo said.
Darwin Week carries on after the dodgeball tournament with a variety of other educational events that may interest students who are majoring within the department, or even students outside of the department who simply have a desire to learn more about Darwin.
Information on these events can be found on the MSU website event calendar or on flyers posted around campus. Students can also contact Diana Outlaw at [email protected] with any additional questions.
