Thank you to everyone who attended Genome Day, a day of learning about genomes, genes, DNA, and evolution at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum in Champaign on Saturday, November 3, 2012.

Over 460 attendees participated in the 16 different activities, such as investigating planarian flatworms, learning how organisms relate to each other on the Tree of Life, extracting strawberry DNA to make necklaces, and dancing with plants on the big screen. As part of the outreach mission of the IGB to promote activities and undertake projects targeted to engage K-12 students as well as the east-central Illinois community with the University of Illinois, events such as Genome Day strive to present the key concepts of the research taking place at the IGB, in an approachable manner for all ages.