NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/03/29
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2013-03-29 14:55.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear Friends of NCSE, NCSE's Mark McCaffrey is interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition. And a preview of Marlene Zuk's Paleofantasy.
CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION ON NPR National Public Radio highlighted climate change education in a segment of its Morning Edition show broadcast on March 27, 2013, featuring NCSE's Mark McCaffrey. "By the time today's K-12 students grow up, the challenges posed by climate change are expected to be severe and sweeping," the segment began. "Now, for the first time, new federal science standards due out this month [i.e., the Next Generation Science Standards, now expected in April 2013] will recommend that U.S. public school students learn about this climatic shift taking place." McCaffrey told NPR, "the state of climate change education in the U.S. is abysmal," citing survey data indicating that only one in five students "feel like they've got a good handle on climate change from what they've learned in school" and that two in three students feel that they're not learning much about it at all in their schools. NCSE's recent report "Toward a Climate & Energy Literate Society" was cited as offering recommendations for improving climate and energy literacy in the United States over the course of the next decade. The politicization of climate change education is a barrier, however. Besides the spate of legislation, such as the bills considered in Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas in 2013, NPR observed, "educators say the politicization of climate change has led many teachers to avoid the topic altogether. Or, they say some do teach it as a controversy ... The end result for students? Confusion." And the NGSS may provoke a backlash from climate change deniers: a representative of the Heartland Institute indicated that his organization was prepared to be critical of their treatment of climate science. Heidi Schweingruber of the National Research Council, which developed the framework on which the NGSS are based, said, "There was never a debate about whether climate change would be in there," adding, "It is a fundamental part of science, and so that's what our work is based on, the scientific consensus." She emphasized that climate change presents pedagogical challenges: teachers need to avoid (in NPR's words) "freaking kids out". McCaffrey concurred, adding that teachers will need not only training on the science but also preparation to deal with the pressure that comes with teaching it. For the NPR story, visit: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/27/174141194/a-hot-topic-climate-change-coming-to-classrooms For "Toward a Climate & Energy Literate Society" (PDF), visit: http://ncse.com/files/pub/evolution/NCSE%20Climate%20and%20Energy%20Literacy%20Summit%20Report.pdf A GLIMPSE OF PALEOFANTASY NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Marlene Zuk's Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live (W. W. Norton, 2013). The preview consists of the whole of the introduction, in which Zuk sketches her argument against "the idea that our modern lives are out of touch with the way human beings evolved and that we need to redress the imbalance," writing that it "flatly contradicts what we now understand about the way evolution works -- namely, that rate matters." Reviewing Zuk's book for Nature, John Hawks wrote, "She ably presents a sceptical and light-hearted view of a long list of palaeofantasies and supposed solutions." And Richard Wrangham praised it as "an elegant guide for the perplexed," adding, "Paleofantasy cuts through a confusing tangle of facts and claims to give us a trustworthy road map to the glorious problems of who we are and where we come from." Marlene Zuk is a professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior at the University of Minnesota. For the preview of Paleofantasy (PDF), visit: http://ncse.com/book-excerpt For information about the book from its publisher, visit: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Paleofantasy/ 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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