ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Darwin Day is celebrated every year to honor Charles Darwin, the scientist that helped the field of evolutionary biology.

Each year, his contributions are celebrated on his birthday, Feb. 12.

Rochester held their own Darwin Day celebration on Sunday.

Darwin’s work has inspired other educators to make their own discoveries and share their knowledge with future generations.

"A week ago it was Charles Darwin’s birthday,” presenter Christopher Erbland said. “This is to try to educate people about Darwin's world cruise, where he got a lot of his ideas and information about natural selection and evolution.”

Darwin enthusiasts gathered to commemorate the discoveries the scientist made.

“He spent three weeks in the Galapagos,” Erbland said. “Just his cruise was five years long. And he did pretty much everything by himself with some local guides and so forth. He would go off into the Amazon jungle, places where no one had ever been before. And he was just fearless.”

One educator underwent the same journey as Darwin.

“I have been interested in fossils in evolution pretty much all my life and dinosaurs and in 1989,” presenter Robert Rothman said. “I had the opportunity to go to the Galapagos as a tourist. And it was such an adrenaline-laden trip, I kept saying, I've got to come back and it would be great to bring students. And so the following year, I contacted the travel agent who organized the tour. And now it's one of the oldest and probably longest-running RIT study abroad programs.”

Some educators unearthed their own discoveries as well.

“I was actually hired by RIT to get the biology and biotechnology program up and running,” Rothman said. “But when I went to the Galapagos, I mean, that just shifted my whole interest. I began teaching courses on vertebrate evolution, evolution and creationism.”

Guests hope to share and pass down their knowledge for future generations.

“I've never been an actual never been a professional teacher, but I'm always teaching,” Erbland said. “I'm trying to educate my grandchildren and I send them little things like this all the time. And it's just very rewarding for me to see young people, especially learn these things and understand them.”

Darwin's day left some guests to recognize and reflect the accomplishments of all scientists' contributions.

“Galileo and Copernicus showed us that the earth is not the center of the universe, and Darwin showed us that Earth is not the center of creation,” Rothman said. “We live in an age of myths, misrepresentation and disinformation. It’s important to not be swayed like that and those three scientists made us reevaluate our relationship with the world.”