NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2014/05/02

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear friends of NCSE,

The proposal to include a reference to the sixth day of creation in a
bill designate a state fossil for South Carolina is still alive, while
the state's new science standards are again derailed by a state
senator's objections to evolution. NCSE's Friend of Darwin and Friend
of the Planet awards for 2014 are announced. And further comment on
the Wyoming legislature's decision not to fund adoption of the Next
Generation Science Standards because of their treatment of climate
change.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR SOUTH CAROLINA'S MAMMOTH DEBATE?

The South Carolina Senate insisted on its version of House Bill 4482
-- which refers to the Sixth Day of Creation -- on a 28-13 vote on
April 30, 2014, and so the bill proceeds to a conference committee. As
NCSE previously reported, HB 4482 was intended to designate the
Columbian mammoth as the official state fossil and passed the House on
a 94-3 vote in February 3, 2014, but the Senate amended it to add "as
created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field" after
each instance of "mammoth." When the amended bill returned to the
House, it was rejected on a 72-30 vote.

Appointed to the conference committee from the Senate were Kevin L.
Bryant (R-District 3), who introduced the "Sixth Day" amendment after
his amendment to designate Genesis 1:24-25, which describes the sixth
day of creation, as the official state passage from an ancient
historical text, was rejected; Kevin L. Johnson (D-District 36), who
was among the thirteen senators to vote to abandon the amendment on
April 30, 2014; and Ross Turner (R-District 8), who was among the
twenty-eight senators to vote to insist on the amendment.

Appointed to the conference committee from the House were Phillip D.
Owens (R-District 5), who voted for the amended bill in the House;
William M. Hixon (R-District 83), who was absent from the vote on the
amended bill in the House; and Robert L. Ridgeway III (D-District 64),
who introduced the original version of HB 4482 in the first place, at
the behest of a constituent -- eight-year-old paleontology enthusiast
Olivia McConnell -- and who voted for the amended bill in the House.
In all, four of the six members of the conference committee have
already voted for the "Sixth Day" version of the bill.

For information about South Carolina's House Bill 4482, visit:
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=4482&session=120 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in South Carolina, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/south-carolina 

STANDARDS IMPASSE RESUMES IN SOUTH CAROLINA

The impasse in the dispute about the place of evolution in South
Carolina's state science standards continues. "The S.C. Education
Oversight Committee on Monday sent proposed language to the [state
board of education] that would require biology students to construct
scientific arguments that seem to support and seem to discredit
Darwinism," reports the Charleston Post and Courier (April 28, 2014).

As NCSE previously reported, in January 2014 the state board of
education voted to adopt a revised set of science standards, rejecting
two different proposals -- one from the Education Oversight Committee,
one from a member of the board -- that would have compromised the
treatment of evolution in the process. Although the board's vote was
supposed to be final, the standards then returned to the EOC for its
approval.

In February 2014, the EOC voted to approve the standards with the
exception of a clause involving the phrase "natural selection."
Senator Mike Fair (R-District 6), a member of the EOC and a long-time
opponent of evolution education in South Carolina, told the Charleston
Post and Courier (February 10, 2014), ""Natural selection is a direct
reference to Darwinism. And the implication of Darwinism is that it is
start to finish."

Subsequently, Fair seemed to reverse himself, telling the Charleston
City Paper (February 13, 2014), "I support the scientific standards as
they were given to our subcommittee," adding, "I just needed a few
days to look at the possible overreach of the terminology, and it's
not there." It was expected, therefore, that the material about
natural selection would be restored, and the standards would be
approved, at the EOC's April 2014 meeting.

But Fair reversed himself again during the EOC's April 28, 2014,
meeting, saying, according to the Post and Courier, "We must teach the
controversy ... There's another side. I'm not afraid of the
controversy." He proposed to amend the standards to call for students
to "[c]onstruct scientific arguments that seem to support and
scientific arguments that seem to discredit Darwinian Natural
selection." The amendment passed on a 7-4 vote.

Rob Dillon, a professor of biology at the College of Charleston and
president of South Carolinians for Science Education, described the
events as "frustrating," "irritating," and "disappointing." "There are
exactly zero scientific arguments that discredit natural selection,"
Dillon told the Post and Courier. "What there are is about 10,000
religious arguments that seek to weaken natural selection."

What's next for South Carolina's state science standards? According to
the Post and Courier, the EOC's "recommendation now goes back to the
board of education. For the EOC's recommendation to be included in the
state's standards, both bodies must agree on what the language should
say. Otherwise, the state keeps the current language," i.e., of the
state science standards adopted in 2005.

Commenting in the Post and Courier (April 30, 2014), columnist Brian
Hicks advised the state board of education not to capitulate to the
EOC. Rather, he said, they "need to do the right thing and ignore this
pseudo science, or else let them pay for the losing lawsuit that will
result. It's about time people with so little interest in any other
world view stop trying to foist theirs on everyone else."

For the Charleston Post and Courier's story, visit:
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140428/PC1603/140429335 

For the earlier stories from the Post and Courier and the Charleston
City Paper, visit:
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140210/PC1603/140219927/1005/state-committee-approves-new-science-standards-for-students 
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/TheBattery/archives/2014/02/13/sc-sen-mike-fair-drops-opposition-to-evolution-teaching-standards 

For Brian Hicks's column in the Post and Courier, visit:
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140430/PC16/140439989 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in South Carolina, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/south-carolina 

FRIEND OF DARWIN AND FRIEND OF THE PLANET AWARDS FOR 2014

NCSE is pleased to announce the winners of the Friend of Darwin award
for 2014: Eric Rothschild, Stephen G. Harvey, Witold Walczak, Richard
B. Katskee, and Faye Flam. The first four recipients led the
victorious legal team representing the plaintiffs in Kitzmiller v.
Dover, the 2005 case establishing the unconstitutionality of teaching
"intelligent design" in the public schools; Flam, a science
journalist, wrote "Planet of the Apes" -- the only newspaper column
dedicated to evolution -- the Philadelphia Inquirer from 2010 to 2012.

In a press release issued on April 28, 2014, NCSE's executive director
Ann Reid commented, "The Kitzmiller legal team performed a huge
service for this country. They effectively stopped intelligent design
in its tracks, preventing copycat school districts from adopting
Dover's ID policies. They have indeed earned their Friend of Darwin
award." She also praised Flam's "scientifically informed (and witty)
explanations of evolution and her responses to creationism" as "a
major contribution towards our mutual goals."

NCSE's Friend of Darwin award is presented annually to a select few
whose efforts to support NCSE and advance its goal of defending the
teaching of evolution have been truly outstanding. Previous recipients
of the Friend of Darwin award include Brian Alters, Marshall Berman,
Rob Dillon, Susan Epperson, Barbara Forrest, Philip Kitcher, Lawrence
Krauss, Robert T. Pennock, Judy Scotchmoor, Carl Zimmer, Michael
Zimmerman, and the eleven plaintiffs in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case,
to name only a few.

Also presented, for the first time, was NCSE's Friend of the Planet
award, in honor of a select few whose efforts to support NCSE and
advance its goal of defending the teaching of climate science have
been truly outstanding. Receiving the award were Michael E. Mann,
Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State
University and author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars (2012),
and Richard Alley, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania
State University and author of Earth: The Operator's Manual (2011).

Mann was described as a hero by Bill McKibben, a member of NCSE's
advisory council, who added, "Very few people have sounded more
important alarms about our climate future and ... have paid a higher
price for doing so." And Ben Santer, a member of NCSE's board of
directors, said of Alley, "His research -- and his engaging,
crystal-clear writing about climate change -- have definitely earned
him this award." Mann and Alley, as well as Rothschild, Harvey,
Walczak, Katskee, and Flam, received their awards on April 26, 2014,
at a special ceremony held at the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Drexel University in Philadelphia.

For the press release, visit:
http://ncse.com/climate-denial-creationism/kitzmiller-v-dover-team-climate-science-leaders-honored-by 

For information about the awards, visit:
http://ncse.com/about/friend-of-darwin 
http://ncse.com/about/friend-of-planet 

WHAT'S NEXT IN WYOMING?

Wyoming's newspapers continue to carry a variety of news and comment
following the legislature's decision to preclude the use of any state
funds to review or adopt the Next Generation Science Standards -- a
decision reportedly owing to objections to the NGSS's treatment of
climate change, as NCSE previously reported -- and the state board of
education's subsequent decision not to implement the standards. Of
particular interest are a guest column from a professor in the
department of plant sciences at the University of Wyoming, a report on
how teachers in Laramie, the third largest city in the state, are
going to proceed, and a brief commentary from NCSE's deputy director.

In a guest column in the Casper Star-Tribune (April 27, 2014), Robin
Groose of the University of Wyoming explored "how the science state
lawmakers is choosing to ignore is used and explored on a daily basis
in Wyoming." He cited his own work breeding WyoWinter feed peas
"according to solid evolutionary principles," adding, "All our crops
are genetically improved via evolutionary principles," particularly
the breeder's equation derived from Fisher's fundamental theorem of
natural selection. He also cited the National Center for Atmospheric
Research's Supercomputing Center, wondering how the legislature could
be so keen on bringing the center to the state while wanting to deny
the knowledge it generates to the state's schoolchildren.

Groose described the NGSS as "high standards, generated bottom up from
26 states, endorsed top down by the National Academy of Sciences,
unanimously accepted by a large and diverse group of Wyoming K-12
teachers, approved by so many Wyoming parents and already adopted by
nine [actually eleven] states," and argued that there is no reason to
insist on standards idiosyncratic to Wyoming: "Science is global. And
Wyoming's children must become globally competitive." His column
concluded with a plea for the students coming into the University of
Wyoming to have a basic level of scientific literacy: "Truth be told,
we must raise the bar for Wyoming students. Let's not dumb our
children down."

The Laramie Boomerang (April 27, 2014) reported that local teachers
supported the NGSS's treatment of evolution and climate science. Erin
Klauk, who teaches earth and space science at Laramie High School,
commented, "I think the standards are really well written," she said.
"This is science. It's not politics. And people get upset about the
political part of it, but as far as being a science teacher, it’s our
job to teach the scientific data, to show the kids the data." Her
colleague Angie Varca, who teaches chemistry, added, "If we don't
teach all of our students about the pros and cons associated with
fossil fuels, and also look at possibilities for addressing rising CO2
levels, … we're doing our students a disservice ... The data is very
strong that there is climate change taking place."

Suzanne Perry, the assistant superintendent of curriculum,
instruction, and assessment for the Laramie school district, told the
newspaper that the district is using portions of the standards even
without the legislature's blessing: "We select the pieces that work
for us, even in light of the state not adopting them." Tamara
Bretting, a chemistry teacher at Laramie High School, explained,
"We’ve been modifying the curriculum to add pieces from the NGSS that
we didn't already have in our classes, and we've been doing that for
over a year ... "So I don't think [the legislature's decision to block
the adoption of the NGSS is] going to side-rail us too much, or take
us a step back."

Finally, NCSE's deputy director Glenn Branch wrote a letter published
in the Casper Star-Tribune (April 27, 2014) in response to the
editorial question of how climate change should be taught. Branch
urged that climate change should be taught in accordance with the
current scientific consensus and in a grade-level-appropriate way,
citing the Next Generation Science Standards as a good example. He
also recommended that climate change should be presented by making it
local, human, pervasive, hopeful. Branch concluded, "It is
increasingly important for the science of climate change to be taught
... so future citizens are able to make scientifically informed
decisions about the consequences of climate change."

For Robin Groose's column in the Casper Star-Tribune, visit:
http://trib.com/opinion/columns/groose-seeing-science-from-lingle-to-laramie/article_f1340b3f-0208-54c3-a2fb-c349e74fce6d.html 

For the story in the Laramie Boomerang, visit:
http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2014/04/27/news/doc535c90cfda713035495571.txt 

For Glenn Branch's letter in the Casper Star-Tribune, visit:
http://trib.com/opinion/letters/branch-teach-climate-change-and-teach-it-well/article_f9277290-e414-51bc-9c21-ca467c1758f4.html 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Wyoming, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/wyoming 

WHAT'S NEW FROM THE SCIENCE LEAGUE OF AMERICA

Have you been visiting NCSE's blog, The Science League of America,
recently? If not, then you've missed:

* Josh Rosenau commenting on denialism in the seventh episode of the
Cosmos reboot:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/cosmos-wars-episode-vii-heir-to-denialist-empire-0015547 

* David Almandsmith discussing the third episode of Your Inner Fish:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/your-inner-monkeyshines-0015558 

* Steve Newton commenting on geochronology in the seventh episode of
the Cosmos reboot:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/cosmos-trek-episode-vii-clean-room-edge-forever-0015550 

* Ann Reid discussing the threat that climate change poses to coral reefs:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/occasional-evolutionist-iii-coral-reefs-down-count-0015563 

* Adam Laats's guest post on World War I and the creationism-evolution
controversy:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/what-if-world-war-i-creationism-evolution-controversy-part-7-0015507 

And much more besides!

For The Science League of America, visit:
http://ncse.com/blog 

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 

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http://ncse.com/blog 

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