Though organizers say it wasn’t planned, the new “Explore Evolution” museum exhibit lands at Kansas University in the middle of a heated statewide debate on the topic.

“This exhibit is not meant to convert anyone,” Leonard Krishtalka, director of KU’s Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, said Tuesday during a preview of the attraction.

And it probably won’t change some minds.

Steve Abrams, the Kansas Board of Education chairman who has led a successful charge to adopt science standards casting doubts about evolutionary theory, said he may visit the exhibit if he has time. But he may not believe everything he sees – and he doesn’t think it will affect the debate.

Marvin Hunt, assistant dean of continuing education at Kansas University, peeks through a microscope Oct. 25 at the Natural History Museum's Explore

“I think it’s a wonderful thing they’ve got it in Kansas,” Abrams said.

The board may take up the science standards as early as next month.

KU’s display opens to the public on Tuesday and will run at least two years. The project, funded by a $2.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation, brings the exhibit to KU and five other institutions. It’s been in the planning stages for more than four years, Krishtalka said

Geared to grade-school children, the exhibit includes a presentations on whales, viruses, flies and chimpanzees.

A female Drosophila heteroneura, or pomace fly, is seen through a microscope at the Explore

The exhibit aims to inform the public about evolution, the driving forces behind evolution, why it matters to science and why teaching and learning evolution are basic to a science education, Krishtalka said.

He said the museum welcomes all, even those skeptical of evolution.

“Evolution may be one of the more uncomfortable pieces of knowledge that we learn in our lifetime,” Krishtalka said, “because it conflicts directly with our hubris. Many individuals think they can only be special if they can think of themselves as specially created. I think humans are special – created or evolved.”

Krishtalka said religion and science have distinctly different missions.

“There is no conflict between religion and science as long as you keep the two separate,” he said.

Leonard Krishtalka, director of Kansas University's Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, speaks to the media in front of a double helix of DNA strand at the museum's Explore

Kathy Martin, a conservative state school board member from Clay Center, said she had received an invitation to an exhibit opening but declined because she is busy visiting schools these days.

“I see there is a need for knowing the principles of evolution,” she said. “It’s just parts of evolution and the way that it’s taught that I have concerns about.”

Martin differed with Krishtalka on the separation of religion and science.

“To me science and religion can go hand in hand,” she said. “I love science and I love my faith. I love Jesus.”