NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/04/12

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear Friends of NCSE,

Is antievolution legislation on the horizon in Pennsylvania? The final
version of the Next Generation Science Standards was released --
including evolution and climate change. Plus a new Gallup poll on
climate change, and three new members of NCSE's Advisory Council.

ANTIEVOLUTION LEGISLATION FOR PENNSYLVANIA?

Plans are afoot in Pennsylvania "to lobby the state legislature with a
plea to enable teachers in public schools to present alternate,
controversial 'theories' -- ones that violate the basic scientific
principle that they be able to be tested -- when teaching evolution,"
according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (April 11, 2013). Following
a series of presentations from young-earth and "intelligent design"
creationists in a Murrysville, Pennsylvania, church, the church's
senior pastor is calling for legislation enabling teachers in the
state's public schools to share alternates to evolution -- especially
"intelligent design" -- with their students.

But NCSE's Joshua Rosenau told the Tribune-Review that "intelligent
design" simply isn't science: "When someone talks about the idea of
intelligent design, it sure sounds like saying some magical being
descended and poof, created stuff. That sounds a lot like
creationism." He added, "For something to be science ? you have to be
able to test something and say this idea is wrong. That's what
scientists do all day is try to prove themselves wrong. ... But if
you've got this being that is acting outside of the laws of nature,
how do you put that in a test tube? How do you put that under a
microscope?"

The last antievolution legislation in Pennsylvania was House Bill
1007, introduced in April 2005 while the preparations for the trial in
Kitzmiller v. Dover were in progress. HB 1007, if enacted, would have
allowed school boards to add "intelligent design" to any curriculum
containing evolution and allowed teachers to use, subject to the
approval of their board, "supporting evidence deemed necessary for
instruction on the theory of intelligent design"; the term
"intelligent design" was not defined in the bill. The bill received a
hearing in the House Subcommittee on Basic Education in June 2005, but
proceeded no further.

For the story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, visit:
http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmurrysville/yourmurrysvillemore/3704337-74/design-intelligent-chapman 

For Pennsylvania's House Bill 1007 as introduced in 2005, visit:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2005&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=1007&pn=1153 

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

EVOLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE NGSS

The final version of the Next Generation Science Standards was
released on April 9, 2013 -- and the topics of evolution and climate
change, as expected, were not neglected. The new standards, as NCSE's
Mark McCaffrey discussed at LiveScience (April 5, 2013), are a new set
of state science standards based on the National Research Council's A
Framework for K-12 Science Education and developed by a consortium
including twenty-six states. The New York Times (April 9, 2013)
explained, "Among many other changes, the guidelines call for
introducing climate science into the curriculum starting in middle
school, and teaching high school students in detail about the effects
of human activity on climate. The guidelines also take a firm stand
that children must learn about evolution, the central organizing idea
in the biological sciences for more than a century, but one that has
rallied state lawmakers and some religious conservatives to insist
that alternative notions like intelligent design be taught. Though
they could become a focus of political controversy, the climate and
evolution standards are just two aspects of a set of guidelines
containing hundreds of new ideas."

In life sciences, Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity is one of
four disciplinary core ideas at both the middle school and the high
school level. At the middle school level, the idea "is divided into
four sub-ideas: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity, Natural
Selection, Adaptation, and Biodiversity and Humans," and the
performance expectations "help students formulate an answer to the
question, 'How do organisms change over time in response to changes in
the environment?'" At the high school level, the idea is divided into
the same four sub-ideas. The performance expectations "help students
formulate an answer to the question, 'What evidence shows that
different species are related?'"; students are expected to be able to
"construct explanations for the processes of natural selection and
evolution and communicate how multiple lines of evidence support these
explanations," to "evaluate evidence of the conditions that may result
in new species and understand the role of genetic variation in natural
selection," and "to explain trends in populations as those trends
relate to advantageous heritable traits in a specific environment."
Evolution occurs elsewhere in the standards as well.

In earth and space sciences, global climate change is one of four
sub-ideas in the core idea of Earth and Human Activity at both the
middle school and the high school level. The idea is explained at the
middle school level as follows: "Human activities, such as the release
of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in
the current rise in Earth's mean surface temperature (global warming).
Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability
to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of
climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of
knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying
that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities." The high school
level adds, "Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than
they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and
manage current and future impacts. ... Through computer simulations
and other studies, important discoveries are still being made about
how the ocean, the atmosphere, and the biosphere interact and are
modified in response to human activities." As with evolution, global
climate occurs elsewhere in the standards as well.

What's next for the NGSS? Individual states will have to decide
whether to adopt them. The twenty-six state partners on the project
are committed to giving serious consideration to doing so, and over
forty states, including the twenty-six state partners, have expressed
interest: shared standards, as McCaffrey explained in his LiveScience
article, would promote continuity across states, facilitate
international benchmarking, and effect a savings on the development of
standards, assessment, and curriculum. And then, as the Times
explained, "it could be years before the guidelines are translated
into detailed curriculum documents and specific lesson plans, teachers
are trained or retrained in the material and centralized tests are
revised," quoting NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott as
warning, "You can't do education on the cheap." Referring to the
NGSS's innovative presentation "of science as both a body of knowledge
and an evidence-based, model and theory building enterprise that
continually extends, refines, and revises knowledge," she added,
"Teachers are going to need some help in mastering this approach."

For the final version of the NGSS, visit:
http://www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-standards 

For McCaffrey's article at LiveScience, visit:
http://www.livescience.com/28512-science-standards.html 

For A Framework for K-12 Science Education, visit:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165 

And for the article in The New York Times, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/science/panel-calls-for-broad-changes-in-science-education.html 

A NEW GALLUP POLL ON CLIMATE CHANGE

"U.S. worry about global warming is heading back up after several
years of expanded public skepticism," according to a new poll from
Gallup. Also heading back up are the rate of understanding that most
scientists accept global warming and the rate of accepting that
increases in the global temperature over the last century are mostly
due to human activity. But those who think that global warming's
effects will affect them in their lifetime are still in a minority.

Asked "Just your impression, which of the one following statements do
you think is most accurate?" 62% of respondents preferred "most
scientists believe that global warming is occurring," 28% preferred
"most scientists believe that global warming is NOT occurring," and 6%
preferred "most scientists are unsure about whether global warming is
occurring or not." Gallup described the 62% figure as representing "a
nearly full return to pre-2010 attitudes."

Asked "And from what you have heard or read, do you believe increases
in the Earth's temperature over the last century are due more to the
effects of pollution from human activities or natural changes in the
environment that are not due to human activities?" 57% of respondents
chose the human activities response and 39% chose the natural changes
response. The 57% figure is up from 50% in 2010, but lower than the
all-time high of 61% in 2007.

Asked "Do you think that global warming will pose a serious threat to
you or your way of life in your lifetime?" 34% of respondents said
yes, 64% of respondents said no, and 1% expressed no opinion. But 54%
of respondents to a separate question about when global warming's
effects will begin thought that they have already begun to happen,
with 3% thinking that they will begin within a few years and 9%
thinking that they will begin within their lifetime.

Finally, asked "Which comes closer to your view -- it is possible to
take specific actions that will slow down the effects of global
warming or the effects of global warming are part of a natural process
that can't be altered?" 56% of respondents thought that specific
actions to slow down the effects are possible, 40% thought not, and 5%
expressed no opinion. The new poll was the first in which Gallup asked
the question, so no longitudinal comparison is possible.

Asked "Next, thinking about the issue of global warming, how well do
you feel you understand this issue?" 27% of respondents preferred
"very well," 52% preferred "fairly well," 18% preferred "not very
well," and 3% preferred "not at all." The 27% figure is comparable to
results from previous polls from 2010 on; Gallup used a different
question (including a reference to the greenhouse effect) previously
and received a lower rate of "very well" answers.

Overall, Gallup summarizes, "trends throughout the past decade -- and
some stretching back to 1989 -- have shown generally consistent
majority support for the idea that global warming is real, that human
activities cause it, and that news reports on it are correct, if not
underestimated." Despite a fall in support in the last few years,
Gallup adds, now "attitudes are returning to previous levels, putting
them near the long-term averages."

The poll was conducted by telephone interviews conducted March 7-10,
2013, with a random sample of 1,022 adults, aged 18 and older, living
in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia; the sample was
weighted to correct for unequal selection probability, nonresponse,
and double coverage of landline and cell users in the two sampling
frames, and to match national demographics. The maximum margin of
sampling error for the total sample was +/4 percent.

For Gallup's press release about the poll, visit:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/161645/americans-concerns-global-warming-rise.aspx 

For the poll report (PDF), visit:
http://www.gallup.com/file/poll/161663/Global_Warming_130408.pdf 

And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate change, visit:
http://ncse.com/polls/polls-climate-change 

THREE NEW CLIMATE ADVISORS FOR NCSE

NCSE is pleased to announce three new additions to its Advisory
Council, reflecting the addition of climate education to NCSE's area
of concern: James E. Hansen, Michael MacCracken, and Bill McKibben.
"NCSE has long relied on a select group of distinguished scientists,
scholars, and educators to aid its efforts to defend the teaching of
evolution," explained NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott. "Now
that we're defending the teaching of climate change as well, we needed
to expand the scope of our Advisory Council. And we couldn't have
found a more stellar group of advisors!"

* Hansen, who recently retired from the NASA Goddard Institute for
Space Studies, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences; the
recipient of numerous awards, including the Carl-Gustaf Rossby and
Roger Revelle Research Medals, the Sophie Prize, and the Blue Planet
Prize; and the author of Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About
the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
(Bloomsbury, 2009).

* MacCracken, Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs with the
Climate Institute, is a former executive director of the U.S. Global
Change Research Program's National Assessment Coordination Office, a
former president of the International Association of Meteorology and
Atmospheric Sciences, and a co-lead author of the United Nations
Commission on Sustainable Development's report Confronting Climate
Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable.

* McKibben is the founder and chair of the board of the international
climate change campaign 350.org, the recipient of numerous awards,
fellowships, and honorary degrees; the author of The End of Nature
(Random House, 1989) -- generally acknowledged as the first book to
explain global warming to the general public -- and Eaarth: Making a
Life on a Tough New Planet (Times Books, 2010); and the editor of The
Global Warming Reader (Penguin, 2012).

Asked why the fight for climate change education is important,
McKibben replied, "This is the largest thing humans have ever done;
it's important that we understand what it is we're doing, hopefully
while we still have time to slow it down." Scott added, "Teaching
about the science of climate change, both in formal and informal
education, is absolutely necessary in order for future citizens to be
able to make scientifically informed decisions about the consequences
of climate change. With the help of our new advisors, NCSE plans to be
at the forefront of the fight to ensure that climate change is indeed
taught."

For the list of members of NCSE's Advisory Council, visit:
http://ncse.com/about/advisory-council 

For NCSE's resources on climate, visit:
http://ncse.com/climate 

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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