Science Education

It happens. A very large percentage of life science teachers are creationists. In Minnesota, and Minnesota is not that unusual, about half the population or more are creationists, but among life science teachers, that number is reduced by almost one half. In other words, one in three life science teachers are creationists, although most, one would hope, only barely so. This does not mean that creationism is being taught in the classroom. Some, perhaps many, life science teachers who are creationists know to not teach creationism in the classroom. But I find it difficult to believe that…

.... 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 of the room 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"... Jeanne d'Arc was a very influential 10th grader. I understand she gave her Life Science teachers a very hard time. This picture is the only contemporary…

Just realized that I failed to mention this here, but I'm in the Buckeye state to give a talk at the first Columbus Science Pub get-together. All the details are at the link, but the quick rundown: Hampton's on King 234 King Avenue Columbus, OH 7PM-whenever Hope to see a few of you there!

A little over a year ago, there was a meeting of the Minnesota Atheists that included a one hour panel discussion of evolution, creationism, science education, and so on. The panel was moderated by Lynn Fellman, and included (in order from right to left as the audience gazed on) Randy Moore, Sehoya Cotner, Jane Phillips, Greg Laden, and PZ Myers. I thought it would be interesting to repost a description of that event for Back to School Month. There were several ways in which this discussion was interesting, and I'll tell you a few of them here. Presumably PZ will have something as well…

My old friend, colleague, suaboya, and educator extraordinaire, Jay Phelan has written what many believe will be the next Campbell. The name of the book is What Is Life?. There are two versions: one regular, and one with extra physiology. And both are based firmly on and integrated thoroughly with excellent evolutionary biology. The text is fully modernized, using inquiry based learning (called "Intriguing Questions" or "Red Q" Questions. For instance, "Why doesn't natural selection lead to the prodution of perfect organisms?", "Why is it easier to remember gossip than physics equations…

Blogs and schools often don't mix. Many blogs are free ranging entities untethered to an institutional or editorial framework. In public discussions of Scienceblogs.com, the fact that every blogger is editorially independent of each other and of the hosting organization, Seed Media Group, is mentioned without fail, and is often the central topic. Non-Sblings (we scienceblogs.com bloggers call ourselves Sblings) readily accuse us of being under the influence of each other or this or that evil empire, and we just as readily deny it. And it's true ... we are beholden to no one. As a result,…

This post has been moved HERE.

When I go to meet the teachers or administrators at my daughter's school, I whisper these words to each of them: "I just want you to know that I'm involved in a number of organizations that seek to protect the quality of science education in our public schools. If you ever need any support, if you are ever getting any trouble from parents, administrators, whatever, you can rely on me to help, to put you in touch with whom you should speak, to talk to anyone you'd like me to talk to, or anything else you need." This recieves a nod and a side long glance that I try very hard to interpret but…

No. But unfortunately, of the 12 candidates running for school board in one Florida County, only three, Rick Nesbit, Gunnar Paulson and Carol Oyenarte, said "No" when recently asked the question. Two candidates thought it should be taught in a world religion class (and I've got to wonder about a school board candidate who thinks we have world religion classes in a system struggling to fund arts and music). Five of the 12 unequivocally took the position that creationism should be taught: Bonnie Burgess, April Griffin, Felicia Moss, Wayne Gabb and Jodi Wood. source Here is the campaign video…

Ray M. Davis, Jr., of Alachua also admits that his religious beliefs tell him that creationism is true, but despite this admission he still feels that his local school board should ruin science education for all the children in his local public school by ramming their non scientific beliefs down the throats of the students in science class. Oh, and he must also think his school district has a grove of money trees, because the legal defense when they do follow such nonsensical advice and get snagged ... and yes, we are watching ... will be substantial. Read this remarkable story from the…

Readers may be interested in participating in this, from Dave Wessner at Davidson College: Building on a project I piloted last fall, I will explore the potential role of Twitter more intentionally this fall in a course I teach on HIV/AIDS at Davidson College. I invite you to join me in this exploration. Here are a few details: Basically, I am interested in extending the class conversation outside the classroom walls and beyond the appointed class hours. I want the students to begin thinking on their own about what aspects of the subject (HIV/AIDS, in this case) truly interest them. I want to…

As the nation's largest youth development organization - with a network of more than 6 million young people - 4-H prepares youth to move our world forward. Through out-of-school programming, in-school enrichment programs and camps, 4-H cultivates the next generation of leaders, strengthening our nation's ability to tackle leading challenges such as global competitiveness, world hunger, civic involvement, and becoming a healthier society. One Million New Scientists, One Million New Ideas 4-H is working to address our nation's critical scientific workforce challenges by preparing one million…

Therefore, we should teach that as fact in schools, right? I think this might be old. But still relevant.

Money Harper is a musician who has put to song several actual research projects of University of Oklahoma scientists. He's raising money to finish the project. Maybe you can help him out. Either way, it is an interesting story, and I'm sure you are going to want a copy of the CD. My old friend Dan Bewley, of The News On 6, had produced a news piece on the story. Here's the text of the story, and here's the video: Check out the story and follow the link to Monty Harper's web site.

An episode from KTEH's Uncommon Knowledge series: "Darwin under the Microscope: Questioning Darwinism". Dr. Genie Scott goes toe to toe with creationist Dr. William Dembski. Air date: 12/7/2001

... can be found here, in this talk by William Phillips speaking at the AAAS: at 1:08. The implication is that we will only see grief if we don't give religious people the origin of life and the origin of the universe. Presumably we fire the scientists working on these issues. I found this in a post on related topics: Tact not entirely decided upon at Thinkers' Podium.

Wyoming, which is a pretty stupid state sometimes, although you don't hear about it too often because almost no one lives there, has a candidate for governor who ... wants teachers to be required to teach creationism. "I think it is as valuable a theory as any other theory." ... is opposed to abortion even in the context of rape. ... in what the Casper Star-Tribune called "A momumental display of bad judgement" he advocated for leniency for his friend Ty in a rape case. Ry is now serving 60 years in the pen for raping a Casper woman in her home. In a poll conducted nearly two weeks ago,…

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…