NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/09/27
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2013-09-27 15:30.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, NCSE's Glenn Branch and Eugenie C. Scott discuss creationist legends about paleoanthropology in Evolution: Education and Outreach. A survey assesses the attitudes of Texans to climate change. In the pages of Scientific American, NCSE's Eugenie C. Scott and Minda Berbeco warn about the threats to climate education. Barbara Forrest alerts Pennsylvania about the prospective antiscience bill on the horizon. And NESCent's Darwin Day Roadshow is accepting applications.
NCSE'S LATEST IN EVOLUTION: EDUCATION AND OUTREACH "Peking, Piltdown, and Paluxy: Creationist Legends about Paleoanthropology," by NCSE's Glenn Branch and Eugenie C. Scott, was just published in Evolution: Education and Outreach. The abstract of their article: "Because human evolution is often a stumbling block for accepting evolution, creationist legends about paleoanthropology are persistent. Three such legends, according to which paleoanthropology is based on finds that are admittedly fraudulent (Piltdown) or unadmittedly fraudulent (Peking), or is contravened by neglected finds (Paluxy), are critically discussed." Founded in 2008, Evolution: Education and Outreach seeks to promote the accurate understanding and comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory for a wide audience. Starting with its first issue, NCSE regularly contributed a column under the rubric "Overcoming Obstacles to Evolution Education." In 2013, the journal became completely open access, and NCSE plans to continue "Overcoming Obstacles to Evolution Education" under the new system. The first five volumes of Evolution: Education and Outreach are now freely available as well. For "Peking, Piltdown, and Paluxy" (PDF), visit: http://www.evolution-outreach.com/content/pdf/1936-6434-6-27.pdf For the content of the journal from volume 6 (2013) onward, visit: http://www.evolution-outreach.com/ For the content of the journal from volume 1 (2008) to volume 5 (2012), visit: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/12052 POLLING CLIMATE IN TEXAS Seventy percent of Texans accept that global warming is happening, according to a new report from the Yale Project on Climate Communication. But less than half accept that human activity is responsible for global warming, and more than half deny that there is a consensus among the scientific community whether global warming is happening. The poll defined global warming as "the idea that the world's average temperature has been increasing over the past 150 years, may be increasing more in the future, and that the world's climate may change as a result." Asked, "Do you think that global warming is happening, or not?" 70% of respondents answered yes, 14% answered no, and 16% were not sure. Asked to assume that global warming is happening and asked why, 44% of respondents said that it was caused mostly by human activities, 31% said that it was caused mostly by natural changes in the environment, 11% volunteered that it was caused by both, 6% said none of these because it isn't happening, and 8% volunteered other answers or were unsure. Asked about what most scientists think, 43% of respondents said (correctly) that most scientists think that global warming is happening, 47% said that there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening, 2% said that most scientists think that global warming is not happening, and 7% were unsure. The poll was conducted among 800 adult Texans by telephones from July 17 to August 7, 2013. According to the report, "the survey was administered to respondents reached on traditional landline telephones ... as well as to those reached on cellphones ... The average margin of error for the total sample [was] +/- 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level." For the report (PDF), visit: http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/files/Texas_Climate_Change_Report.pdf And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate change, visit: http://ncse.com/polls/polls-climate-change NCSE'S SCOTT AND BERBECO IN SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Writing in Scientific American, NCSE's Eugenie C. Scott and Minda Berbeco warn that "a move is afoot to keep climate science out of classrooms." As they note, "objections to the theory of evolution have bedeviled individual teachers, school boards, state boards of education and state legislatures" for decades. Now such objections have been joined by objections to climate change, both in legislation purporting to grant "academic freedom" to teachers to miseducate their students and in resistance to adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards. But "evolution is one of the most important ideas in human intellectual history," and the firm scientific consensus is "[t]hat the planet is warming and that the burning of fossil fuels over the past 150 years explains the current rapid rate of change." Scott and Berbeco conclude, "Beginning learners have a right to know what scientists have concluded. It is not right to allow religious, political or economic ideologies to trump instruction in science." For Scott and Berbeco's article in Scientific American, visit: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-move-is-afoot-to-keep-climate-science-out-of-classrooms And for NCSE's resources on climate education, visit: http://ncse.com/climate BARBARA FORREST'S WARNING TO PENNSYLVANIA Writing in the Erie, Pennsylvania, Times-News (September 18, 2013), Barbara Forrest warned Pennsylvanians about the threatened antiscience bill in their state. As NCSE previouslyreported, in August 2013, Stephen Bloom (R-District 199) was circulating a memo seeking cosponsors for a proposed bill resembling the antiscience bill enacted in Tennessee in 2012. Reminding her readers about the 2005 trial in Kitzmiller v. Dover, establishing that the teaching of "intelligent design" in the public schools is unconstitutional, Forrest observed that the Discovery Institute's reaction was to announce its "new front in the debate over intelligent design -- the need to protect academic freedom." She continued, "With intelligent design exposed as creationism in court, the Discovery Institute now conceals its true aims behind the sanitized code language of 'academic freedom' legislation, seeking to undermine the teaching of evolution under the guise of 'critical thinking.' But the Discovery Institute's 'new front' is a shopworn creationist tactic." Forrest argued that Bloom's bill pursues the goal of promoting "intelligent design" creationism: "Pennsylvanians shouldn't be fooled: Bloom is pushing a stealth intelligent design creationism bill, pure and simple, and the Discovery Institute plans to exploit Pennsylvania's legislative process the same way it exploited Louisiana's and Tennessee's." So far there is no sign of the bill on the Pennsylvania General Assembly's website, but the legislature is not currently in session. The legislature reconvenes on September 23, 2013. Bloom told Fox 43 television (September 4, 2013) that he recruited seven cosponsors for the bill and hoped to add further cosponsors when the legislature reconvenes. Barbara Forrest is Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, coauthor (with Paul R. Gross) of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (revised edition, Oxford University Press 2007), and a member of NCSE's board of directors and a recipient of NCSE's Friend of Darwin award; she testified for the plaintiffs in Kitzmiller v. Dover. For Forrest's column in the Times-News, visit: http://www.goerie.com/article/20130918/OPINION08/309189989/Guest-Voice-of-Barbara-Forrest%3A-Intelligent-design-sneaks-into-public-schools# For Fox 43 television's story, visit: http://fox43.com/2013/09/05/academic-freedom-bill-places-science-up-for-debate And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Pennsylvania, visit: http://ncse.com/news/pennsylvania ON THE ROAD AGAIN WITH NESCENT The Darwin Day Roadshow is returning! The Roadshow is a project of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, in which NESCent staff shares their enthusiasm for evolutionary science with students, teachers, and the general public on the occasion of Charles Darwin's birthday, February 12. According to NESCent, "Our teams talk to students, teachers and the general public about their research in evolutionary science, describe what it takes to become an evolutionary biologist (and what some of the rewards and challenges are), and convey why evolutionary science is relevant to everyone." And the results are delightful: as NESCent's Craig McClain wrote at Pacific Standard (May 15, 2011), "for all of us the Darwin Day Road Show was a gratifying adventure that no one will forget. From the landscapes with their silos, combines, center pivot crop circles, high school gymnasiums, to the indelible interactions we had along the way, we absorbed it all." Applications from schools interested in hosting the Roadshow, especially those who would not be likely to have access to Darwin Day activities otherwise, are now being accepted. Act soon, though; the application deadline is November 27, 2013. For information about NESCent's Darwin Day Roadshow and about applying to host it, visit: http://roadshow.nescent.org/ http://roadshow.nescent.org/apply/ For McClain's article in Pacific Standard, visit: http://www.psmag.com/science/scientists-take-charles-darwin-on-the-road-31211/ 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 Check out NCSE's new blog, Science League of America: http://ncse.com/blog 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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