Florida Senate Bill S2692 is up for discussion and a decision to pass to the floor by the Senate Judiciary Committee.BELOW YOU WILL FIND LINKS TO EMAIL EACH MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE (except one, for whom I provide a phone number).I’d say you don’t need to be a Florida resident to let them know what you think. In fact, let them know that the whole world is watching!I’ve got to say that this is one of the scariest bills I’ve seen in a while. Have a look: Continue reading Florida Citizens for Sanity: Take Note!
Tag Archives: Science Education
Is Blood Ever Blue? Science Teachers Want to Know!
According to one of the leading experts on the human circulatory system, blood flowing through veins is blue. Continue reading Is Blood Ever Blue? Science Teachers Want to Know!
Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein
Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, physicist Neil Turok speaks out for talented young Africans starved of opportunity: by unlocking and nurturing the continent’s creative potential, we can create a change in Africa’s future. Turok asks the TED community to help him expand the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences by opening 15 new centers across Africa in five years. By adding resources for entrepreneurship to this proven model, he says, we can create a network for progress across the continent — and perhaps discover an African Einstein.
Continue reading Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein
A Broken Pipeline: Unprecedented Funding NIH Stagnation Can Only Lead to Harm
There is a campaign to bring attention, of the public and of congress, to a five year long stagnation of NIH funding, which is being called a broken pipeline. NIH funding had been increased significantly prior to that, to address major shortfalls in funding for mostly medical research in key important issues. However, over the last five years, the dollar amount of funding has remained flat, not even keeping up with inflation, where it really should have increased further, even more than inflation. Continue reading A Broken Pipeline: Unprecedented Funding NIH Stagnation Can Only Lead to Harm
Photosynthesis Video
Photosynthesis; This is how the British to it (teaching, not photosynthesis).
From Crackle:
Sexing Drosophila melanogaster
Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
… a no-holds-barred commitment to particular, parochial religious beliefs about the history and fabric of the world … This variant has eliminated brilliantly the obstacle of rational opposition to ideology … The new strategy is wonderfully simple. Here is how you implement it: exploiting that modern, nearly universal, liberal suspicion of zealotry, you accuse the branch of legitimate inquiry whose results you hate, in this case the evolutionary natural sciences, of — what else? — zealotry! … Crying “viewpoint discrimination,” you loudly demand adherence to the principle of freedom of speech, especially in teaching, insisting that such freedom is being denied your legitimate alternative view…This bold strategy is working, not just with religious fundamentalists, who do not need to be convinced anyway, but with people who have no such fundamentalist commitment and who are in principle well-enough educated to see what is happening. …This lusty new variant of creationism is advancing rapidly by means of a strategy called “The Wedge.”
Continue reading Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
Life Science Teachers….
…. Have you ever had this happen: You are minding your own business, teaching your life science course, it’s early in the term. A student, on the way out after class (never at the beginning of class, rarely during class) mentions something about “carbon dating.” This usually happens around the time of year you are doing an overview of the main points of the course, but before you’ve gotten to the “evolution module” (more on the “evolution module” another time … or come to the Bell on Friday to hear me rant about that in person).
Jeanne d’Arc was a very influential 10th grader. I understand she gave her Life Science teachers a very hard time. This is the only contemporary depiction of Joan of Arc. Some say the banner reads “IHS” but I’m pretty sure it says “AIG.” The student is talking about C14 dating and how it “has problems.” But you are a life science teacher and can’t think of a single point in your class that you really touch on C14. Dating in the evolution section does not involve C14. This is for later time periods, more in the area of archaeology, and you know nothing about it. So you brush off the question but are left with an uneasy feeling.
Texas: Creationists Fail To Co opt School Board
Voters told urologist Barney Maddox to piss off, leaving incumbent and former school teacher Pat Hardy in her position on the school board representing District 11. The people of that Texas District were too smart to be fooled by an excessively expensive campaign by Maddox who spent over $120,000 to Hardy’s $10,000.Incumbent Mary Helen Berlanga, also challenged by a hard right winger in her own party (Lupe Gonzales) appears also to be holding her own in District 2.[source]
Teachers Under Fire
It is very common, across the U.S., for science teachers to dread the “evolution” unit that they teach during life science class. As they approach the day, and start to prepare the students for what is coming, they begin to hear the sarcastic remarks from the creationist students. When the day to engage the evolution unit arrives, students may show up in the classroom with handouts from anti-science sites like Answers in Genesis, to give to their friends. They may carry a bible to the lab station and read it instead of doing the work. If there is a parent conference night around that time, the teacher may be verbally abused by some of the parents for not including “alternative theories” in the classroom. Continue reading Teachers Under Fire
My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)
That is the title of the First Place science fair project from a baptist science fair.The description of the project:
Cassidy Turnbull (grade five) presented her uncle, Steve. She also showed photographs of monkeys and invited fairgoers to note the differences between her uncle and the monkeys. She tried to feed her uncle bananas, but he declined to eat them. Cassidy has conclusively shown that her uncle is no monkey.
Very cute. Too bad little Cassidy’s brain is now hobbled forever. (Well, maybe not. She’s only in fifth grade. She could get over it….)This is from here.. You will find a number of equally endearing examples of christian creationist science fair winners., such as “Women Were Designed For Homemaking” and “Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria”Too good to be true.
Two Cell Level Animations
We ain’t outta Texas yet … Creationist Stacked School Board Looms on the Horizon
It turns out that there are TWO (not just the previously reported Barney Maddox) distinct threats to the delicate pro- vs. anti-science balance on the Texas School Board.I had earlier alerted you to trouble brewing in Texas, with Full Blown Creationist Nuthead Barney Maddox poised to take the swing seat on the Board of Education there. (PZ has also posted on this.)Now, Wired has a piece this developing story. Continue reading We ain’t outta Texas yet … Creationist Stacked School Board Looms on the Horizon
Texas State Board of Education May Shift to Pro Creationism
We are busy watching Florida, and the ICR’s new “degree” in “life science education” in Texas, and whatever crap is happening in our own back yards, and we may be missing a dramatic development at the K-12 level in Texas: Social conservatives are poised to take over the Texas State Board of Education. Continue reading Texas State Board of Education May Shift to Pro Creationism
Florida Yokels Force Religion on Public School Children
Yet another group of slack jawed yokels in some backwater school district want to force their religious beliefs on children in their local school district. This time it’s Nassau County.
“The theory of evolution falls short here since it cannot be observed, hasn’t been repeated and cannot be tested,” Marjorie Ramseur told School Board members. “I applaud you for taking a stand on this issue. If you’re going to teach evolution, please teach all of it.”