NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2012/07/13
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2012-07-13 13:45.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear Friends of NCSE, Encouraging news from South Korea and a new batch of videos on NCSE's YouTube channel.
ENCOURAGING NEWS FROM SOUTH KOREA The plan to eliminate examples of evolution from textbooks in South Korea is under reconsideration. As NCSE previously reported, the South Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology revealed in May 2012 that, due to a petition from a creationist-linked group, textbook publishers were preparing to eliminate the evolution of the horse and of Archaeopteryx from their high school biology textbooks. South Korean biologists complained that the decision was taken without consulting them, one telling Nature (June 5, 2012), "The ministry just sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge." Now, however, "[t]he South Korean government is poised to appoint a new committee that will revisit a controversial plan to drop two examples of evolutionary theory from high school textbooks," according to Science Insider (July 6, 2012), and about fifty prominent South Korean scientists are preparing to submit a petition to the government calling for the proposed changes to be rejected. "When these things are done, I think it will turn out that after all Korean science will not surrender to religion, so to speak," Jae Choe, an evolutionary biologist at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told Science Insider. For the stories in Nature and Science Insider, visit: http://www.nature.com/news/south-korea-surrenders-to-creationist-demands-1.10773 http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/07/south-korea-to-reconsider-plan.html And for NCSE's previous coverage of international events, visit: http://ncse.com/news/international VIDEOS, VIDEOS, VIDEOS NCSE is pleased to announce the addition of a further batch of videos to NCSE's YouTube channel. Especially noteworthy is Eugenie C. Scott speaking on "The public understanding of evolution and the KISS principle" at the University of Idaho in 2009, on the occasion of her receiving the first Stephen Jay Gould Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution. Also featured are "Reason and creationism" at the Global Atheist Convention, "Creationism, evolution, education -- and politics" and "Climate change and evolution denial -- the parallels" at Saginaw Valley State University, "Creationism in and outside of the US" at the 6th World Skeptics Congress, "Florida's 'critical thinking' bills" at the University of South Florida, and "What would Darwin say to today's creationists?" at Transylvania University, all from 2012, and "Why creationism isn't science" at Denkfest Zürich and "The Texas evolution wars" at the Texas Freethought Convention, both from 2011. Additionally, there are videos of Barbara Forrest (a member of NCSE's board of directors) discussing "The fraud of academic freedom" at the Texas Freethought Convention in 2011; Mark McCaffrey explaining why he is "Skeptical about climate skeptics" to Bay Area Skeptics in 2012; Eric Meikle discussing "Darwin and the human fossil record: 150 years of discovery, exploration, and debate" at Eastern Illinois University in 2012; Steve Newton explaining "Creationism vs. evolution: The meaning to our schools and society" at the Oakmont Sunday Symposium in 2012 and "Anti-evolution and anti-climate science bills laid bare" to Berkeley Atheists in 2012; and Zack Kopplin -- the intrepid student who spearheaded the effort to repeal his home state's so-called Louisiana Science Education Act in 2011 and again in 2012 -- receiving the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award from the Playboy Foundation in 2012. Tune in and enjoy! For NCSE's YouTube channel, visit: http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website -- http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on evolution and climate education and threats to them. -- Sincerely, Glenn Branch Deputy Director National Center for Science Education, Inc. 420 40th Street, Suite 2 Oakland, CA 94609-2509 510-601-7203 x305 fax: 510-601-7204 800-290-6006 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Read Reports of the NCSE on-line: http://reports.ncse.com Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: http://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd http://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! http://ncse.com/join
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