Although John Scopes and his famous “Monkey Trial” strongly influenced the ongoing evolution-creationism controversy, relatively little is known about Scopes’s post-trial life. Moreover, many questions about his trial remain unanswered (e.g., did he actually teach evolution in Dayton?). This paper answers these questions with new information from a previously ignored source – his family and friends.

Just before his death in 1970, John Scopes claimed that his famous trial “had no other effect upon my family” than his sister Lela losing her teaching job in Paducah, Kentucky. He was wrong. My interviews with John Scopes's family members and descendants – most of whom have never talked about their famous relative until now – reveal that the legacy of the Scopes Trial continues.

Many biology teachers visit Dayton, Tennessee, to experience “ground zero” of the evolution–creationism controversy. This article provides concise descriptions, addresses, and GPS coordinates for the trial-related sites in and around Dayton.

The alleged “man tracks” beside dinosaur tracks near Glen Rose, Texas, are among the most enduring pieces of evidence used by young-Earth creationists to reject evolution. Despite the tracks’ fame, their most persistent advocate – that is, Carl Baugh of the Creation Evidence Museum – has published neither (1) peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals about the tracks nor (2) clear, convincing, unenhanced photographs of unaltered tracks taken during an excavation. I participated in an excavation sponsored by Baugh’s Creation Evidence Museum that uncovered three “man tracks” that Baugh and his assistants verified as being made by humans. These “tracks” are presented here and are among the first clear, unenhanced photographs of freshly uncovered “man tracks” taken during a Baugh-led excavation. They look no different than any of the countless other scuffs, cracks, and erosion marks in the area.

Students regard evolutionary theory differently than science in general. Students’ reported confidence in their ability to understand science in general (e.g., posing scientific questions, interpreting tables and graphs, and understanding the content of their biology course) significantly outweighed their confidence in understanding evolution. We also show that those students with little incoming confidence in their understanding of evolution demonstrated more confidence and the most improved performance by the end of the semester. Collectively, our data indicate that regardless of prior experiences with evolution education, and in spite of myriad social challenges to teaching evolution, students can learn evolution.

We examined how college students' knowledge of evolution is associated with their self-described religious beliefs and the evolution-related content of their high school biology courses. On average, students entering college know little about evolution. Religious beliefs, the absence of evolution-related instruction in high school, and the presence of creationism-related instruction in high school were all associated with significantly lower scores on an evolution exam. We present an ordered logistic model that helps to explain (1) students' diverse views and knowledge of evolution, and (2) why college-level instruction about evolution often fails to significantly affect students' views about evolution.