National Center for Science Education staff will be featured at two key panels at the Netroots Nation 2010 conference in Las Vegas at the Hotel Rio. Details below the fold.
"The ABCs of the Education Culture Wars"
Time: 4:30pm - 5:45pm
Date: July 22, 2010
Steven Newton, NCSE
Dan Quinn - Texas Freedom Network
Michael Bérubé - Literature Professor, Penn. St. Univ.
Judy Jennings, Ph.D. - Texas Board of Ed. candidate
Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Ph.D. - Texas BOE candidate
Activists and leaders on the right have spent the past three decades running "stealth" candidates and funding pressure groups in an effort to shape what American students learn in their public schools. Two of the fiercest state battlegrounds in the education culture wars have been Texas and Kansas, where social conservatives have, at various times, taken control of their respective State Boards of Education. The flash points in those battlegrounds have often been science and social studies, particularly instruction on evolution, the role of religion in the nation's founding and efforts to promote conservative icons and ideology in textbooks and classrooms.
Panelists will explore areas where the right has been most successful in its efforts to hijack education in service of a political agenda. They will also discuss resources available to progressive bloggers and activists who want to uncover, monitor and counter the right's efforts at local, state and federal levels.
"Supporting Science, Benefiting Society"
Time: 9:00am - 10:15am
Date: July 22, 2010
Joshua Rosenau, NCSE
Greg Dworkin, M.D. - Epidemiologist
Naomi Oreskes, Ph.D. - History & Science, UC San Diego
Erik Conway, Ph.D. - Sci. & Technology History, Cal Tech
Moderated by Camron Gorguinpour, Ph.D. - Scientists and Engineers for America
Despite the "Republican war on science," scientific research and education continue to advance. In the last year, the Large Hadron Collider began operation as the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the Hubble Space Telescope was given new life, pandemic flu was averted thanks to public health campaigns and in spite of anti-vaccine denialists, climate change legislation made unprecedented advances even as emails stolen from a climate researcher gave the public a confusing view of science's inner workings, and statewide science standards were found to require more and better evolution lessons than ever before. Scientific and technological advances require not just scientific experts, but an engaged public that appreciates the value of science and policies that encourage and support cutting-edge science education and research. A panel of scientists will discuss steps concerned citizens can and have taken to ensure scientific advances continue for the betterment of society.
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