Tag Archives: Science Education

Creationist College Prof Will Not Return to Classroom

Uncategorized, , ,

An adjunct community college professor had a bit of a problem when it came time to teach evolution, according to certain sources:

Student Bryan Jaden Walker wrote on his blog, … that the professor “glossed over the scientific explanation very quickly (less than 20 seconds), then explained Creationism for about five minutes (5,000-year-old Earth, no evolution, etc).”

…

“Evolution was not taught at all in his class,” Weis said. “When he hit that unit, instead of discussing it himself he had a single slide that had both creationism and evolution. When I spoke up and asked him about it, he claimed there was no evidence for either, but they are just different world views.”

Continue reading Creationist College Prof Will Not Return to Classroom →

Livingston Parish Saved from Creationists

Uncategorized, , ,

For now. This just in from the National Center for Science Education:

Creationism won’t be taught in the public schools of Livingston Parish, Louisiana — at least not yet. The Baton Rouge Advocate (August 1, 2010) reports that “The Livingston Parish School Board won’t try to include the teaching of creationism in this year’s curriculum, but has asked the School Board staff to look at the issue for possible future action.” At a July meeting, inspired by the Louisiana Science Education Act, the board formed a committee to explore the possibilities of incorporating creationism in the parish’s science classes. The committee is not expected to report its findings in time for the board to take any action for the 2010-2011 school year; the board’s president Keith Martin explained, “We have decided not to try to hurry up and rush something in for this year.”

Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, told the Advocate that the decision to teach creationism would be not only doomed to failure but expensive. “If they were to do it, they could anticipate that any litigation would result in them not only losing, but having to pay enormous legal fees,” she said. “They would be wasting a huge amount of taxpayer money on a battle they can’t win.” The board’s attorney confirmed that it would be unconstitutional for the schools to teach creationism. Meanwhile, board member David Tate, who broached the possibility of teaching creationism at the previous board meeting, commented, “We don’t want litigation, but why not take a stand for Jesus and risk litigation.”

Livingston, LA School Board To Implement Discovery Institute’s “Academic Freedom” Law

Uncategorized, , , ,

Barbara Forrest, author of Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, has a major blog post addressing the current maneno in Louisiana. A Parish school board there wants to place creationism on equal or higher footing than evolution. Read Barbara’s piece here.

Minnesota Citizens for Science Education has a New Home!!!

Uncategorized, , , ,

And we need your help to move it. Please click here so the global network of DNS servers knows that you want to visit the MnCSE. You should really visit the site anyway, it’s very cool, even if you are not a Minnesota. I love the graphic thingie on the top of the right sidebar …. click the picture to learn an interesting thing about evolution or related topics.

So? What are you waiting for? Click here!

And, if yo are a parent, teacher, student, or academic interested in excellent science education in Minnesota, bookmark the site and come back often.

Thank you very much, that is all.

Evolution: Education and Outreach dedicates issue to Genie Scott

Uncategorized, ,

The latest issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach (volume 3, number 2) is in honor of — if a few months in advance of — the sixty-fifth birthday of NCSE‘s executive director Eugenie C. Scott. Edited by NCSE’s deputy director Glenn Branch (who contributed “Three wishes for Genie” by way of introduction), it contains essays by Nicholas J. Matzke, Robert T. Pennock, Barbara Forrest, Raymond Arthur Eve with Susan Carol Losh and Brandon Nzekwe, Lawrence M. Krauss, Robert M. Hazen, Kevin Padian, Jay D. Wexler, Kenneth R. Miller, Brian Alters, and Carl Zimmer. Plus there’s a biographical appreciation by Andrew J. Petto, a bibliography compiled by Adam M. Goldstein and Glenn Branch, and a reflection on the importance of “Listening to Teachers” by Scott herself.

Additionally, NCSE’s Louise S. Mead and Scott offered a further installment in Overcoming Obstacles to Evolution Education, NCSE’s regular feature in Evolution: Education and Outreach. Entitled “Problem Concepts in Evolution Part II: Cause and Chance,” their column discusses how the concepts of cause and chance are often confusing to students and suggests “how to address these specific challenges to understanding evolution in light of recent research.” And NCSE’s Steven Newton reviewed Ralph O’Connor’s The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856 (University of Chicago Press, 2007), which, he writes, “presents a wide-ranging view of how geology, in its earliest days, appealed through drama and spectacle to an exclusive portion of the public.”

Originally, Evolution: Education and Outreach was freely available on-line. Now, as Niles Eldredge and Gregory Eldredge explain in their editorial, “After a temporary hiatus, … we are poised to come back free online — the better to serve our educational outreach mission.” Past issues will soon begin to appear on-line at the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed Central. But there’s no need to wait to read the articles by Matzke (PDF), Padian (PDF), and Scott (PDF), which were published through Springer’s Open Access program and are already freely available. Moreover, NCSE members will have the opportunity to receive a printed copy of the issue, which will be offered as a gift premium in the fall fundraising letter. And if you’re not a member of NCSE, what are you waiting for? Join today.

Wow! Quite an honor!

Radiations and Extinctions

Uncategorized

… biodiversity through the ages …

There’s a story that scientists like to tell about the great evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane. Supposedly, Haldane once found himself in the company of a group of theologians. They asked him what one could conclude about the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation. “An inordinate fondness for beetles,” Haldane replied.

The National Center for Science Education maintains a library of offprints and book chapters for which that they have been given explicit permission to distribute to the general public at no cost. One of these carefully selected items is a chapter from Carl Zimmer’s The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution … The download is the chapter on biodiversity and evolution from which the above quote is taken. You can download the chapter here, or you can visit NCSE and poke around on their site.

I might or might not be a science journalist

Uncategorized,

One of the great things about Coturnix is that he brings two context-broadening tools to the table in any discussion: Synchronic and diachronic. In a recent post (Am I a Science Journalist? he adds the diachronic. I had not previously realized or considered (or at lest, not thought it relevant) that early science journalists were not trained in journalism school, as has been the case recently. Recognizing this serves to place the professionalized (read “fetishied”) version of journalism in a different light, and weakens models of modern practice that rely on potentially constraining standards.

Continue reading I might or might not be a science journalist →

Antievolution legislation in Missouri dies

Uncategorized, , ,

Missouri’s latest contribution to ruining science education has died a merciful death before even reaching committee. This did not happen by itself. This happened because we are keeping an eye on them.

We are watching you, Robert Wayne Cooper. And the rest of you. We are watching you too.

Read the happy details at the NCSE web site.