NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/08/09
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2013-08-09 14:47.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Kentucky's department of education and board of education rebuffs evolution denial and climate change denial. A new poll probes the views of young voters on climate change. Kansas Citizens for Science is honored by the Kansas Association of Teachers of Science. And there are glimmerings in Pennsylvania of a new antiscience bill on the horizon.
DENIERS REBUFFED IN KENTUCKY The Kentucky Board of Education declined to make any changes to a proposed regulation that would enact the Next Generation Science Standards as Kentucky's state science standards, despite the protests of evolution deniers and climate change deniers. In a lengthy document dated August 1, 2013, the Kentucky Department of Education summarized the thoughts of all who submitted comments on the regulation, and provided detailed replies. On the topics of evolution and climate change in particular, the department wrote (p. 139): *** The agency also received statements of support related to the inclusion of particular science topics such as climate change and evolution, stating that meaningful scientific debate on the validity of evolution and climate science has ceased. Proponents of the continued inclusion of evolution pointed to the overwhelming acceptance of evolution in the biological science community. Proponents of the inclusion of climate change education contend that Kentucky students deserve the most up to date science education, which includes climate change. [The department agreed with these comments: see, e.g., pp. 104 and 105 on evolution, and pp. 115 on climate change.] Over one hundred substantially identical emails were received stating an opposition to the continued inclusion of evolution in the proposed standards, characterizing evolution as a theory and not a fact. These commenters asked that intelligent design be added to the standards. Other commenters questioned the scientific validity of evolution. The agency also received several comments specific to the inclusion of climate change in the proposed standards, including concerns that climate change science was overemphasized to the neglect of other science concepts or that climate change is not a settled issue in the scientific community. *** The three important antievolution goals -- banning the teaching of evolution; balancing the teaching of evolution with creationism, whether in the form of "creation science" or "intelligent design"; and belittling evolution as controversial -- were in evidence. So were all three of the pillars of creationism -- arguing that evolution is scientifically controversial; arguing that teaching evolution is linked with negative social consequences; arguing that it is only fair to teach "all sides" of the supposed controversy. The same themes were also reflected in the comments about climate change. The Kentucky Board of Education approved the department's report on August 8, 2013, so, as WPFL in Louisville, Kentucky, reports (August 8, 2013), "The regulation now heads to Kentucky’s Administrative Regulation Review Committee. If approved in the Kentucky General Assembly, the new standards would go into effect during the 2014-2015 school year." Kentucky would join Rhode Island, Kansas, Maryland, and Vermont as the first five states to adopt the NGSS -- unless the legislature, which includes vocal critics of evolution and climate change, refuses its approval. For the Kentucky Department of Education's report (PDF), visit: http://portal.ksba.org/public/Meeting/Attachments/DisplayAttachment.aspx?AttachmentID=178938 For WPFL's story, visit: http://wfpl.org/post/kentucky-education-officials-ok-new-science-standards-despite-criticism-evolution And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Kentucky, visit: http://ncse.com/kentucky POLLING YOUNG VOTERS ON CLIMATE A recent poll conducted for the League of Conservation Voters suggests that young voters regard climate change as a threat and are suspicious of climate change denial. A July 26, 2013, press release from the LCV commented, "Climate deniers are so last generation. LCV released a bipartisan poll this week showing how climate change stands to become a defining issue for young voters nationwide." Asked for their view of climate change, 55% of respondents preferred "is a severe threat that we must start addressing now," while 11% preferred "is an issue to address in the years ahead, but it's not urgent now," 27% preferred "may be happening, but it's a natural event that humans can't affect," 3% preferred "is not really happening," and 3% said that they didn't know. Asked how they would react if their elected representatives denied that climate change was a real problem, 68% of respondents said that they would be somewhat or much less likely to vote for them, 20% said that they would be somewhat or much more likely to vote for them, 9% said that it would not affect their vote either way, and 3% said that they didn't know. Asked which of several words they would use to describe a politician who says that climate change is not really happening, 73% of respondents preferred a negative adjective (37% for "ignorant"; 29% for "out-of-touch"; 7% for "crazy"), while 23% preferred a positive adjective (12% for "independent"; 8% for "commonsense"; 3% for "thoughtful"), and 3% said they didn't know. The poll was conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group and GS Strategy Group, which conducted 600 telephone interviews nationwide from July 8 to July 10, 2013. According to a July 24, 2013, memorandum, "All respondents were registered voters age 18-34 who voted in the 2012 general election. The margin of error for the entire sample is +/-3.9% at the 95% confidence level." For the poll results (PDF), the press release, and the memorandum (PDF), visit: http://www.lcv.org/issues/polling/youth-voters-poll.pdf http://www.lcv.org/media/blog/lcv-releases-youth-poll-on.html http://www.lcv.org/issues/polling/recent-polling-on-youth.pdf And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate change, visit: http://ncse.com/polls/polls-climate-change CONGRATULATIONS TO KANSAS CITIZENS FOR SCIENCE NCSE is pleased to congratulate Kansas Citizens for Science for receiving a 2013 Outstanding Contributions to Science Education Award from the Kansas Association of Teachers of Science. In the summer 2013 issue of the KATS newsletter, KATS praised KCFS for its efforts, writing: *** Kansas Citizens for Science (KCFS) has generously provided scholarships to help current and pre-service science teachers attend the KATS annual conference for the past two years to offset declining support for professional development in Kansas education funding. KCFS has also provided free teaching materials and kits for teachers at these conferences. KATS also commends KCFS for its support of informal science education in Kansas in the form of monthly Science Cafes in Hays, Overland Park, Manhattan, Pittsburg, and Wichita. Science Cafes are designed to engages the general public with current science events and provide a chance for casual, lively, and civil discussion of various science topics. Kansas Citizens for Science is a not-for-profit educational organization that promotes a better understanding of what science is, and does, by advocating for science education, by education the public about the nature and value of science, and by serving as an information resource. *** KCFS was also instrumental in countering the attempts of creationists to undermine the treatment of evolution and allied topics in the Kansas state science standards in 1998 and again in 2005. For KATS's praise of KCFS (PDF, p. 16), visit: http://www.kats.org/docs/KATS_Newsletter_Summer_2013_1.pdf For KCFS's website, visit: http://www.kcfs.org/ And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Kansas, visit: http://ncse.com/news/kansas ANTISCIENCE BILL ON THE PENNSYLVANIA HORIZON A Pennsylvania legislator is seeking cosponsors for a bill that would allow public school students to assess "the scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories," the Philadelphia Inquirer (August 4, 2013) reports. As NCSE previously reported, there were calls for such legislation in April 2013, following a series of presentations from young-earth and "intelligent design" creationists in a Murrysville, Pennsylvania, church. But there was no apparent reaction until August 1, 2013, when Stephen Bloom (R-District 199) circulated a memo seeking cosponsors for a proposed "academic freedom" bill closely resembling the bill enacted in Tennessee in 2012. In its draft form, Bloom's bill claims that "[t]he teaching of some scientific subjects, including, but not limited to, biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning, can cause controversy" and that "[s]ome teachers may be unsure of the expectations concerning how they should present information on such subjects." It thus directs state and local educational administrators to permit teachers to "help students understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught" and forbids them from prohibiting teachers from doing so. Andy Hoover of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania -- which helped to litigate Kitzmiller v. Dover, the 2005 case in Pennsylvania in which teaching "intelligent design" in the public schools was ruled to be unconstitutional -- told the Inquirer, "[T]his is the code people use when they want to inject religion into public-school science classrooms." NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott agreed, saying, "Because of the various court decisions, they can't overtly promote creationism, so they've found a backdoor way of promoting creationism." She added, "It's not another point of view, it's bad science ... Why would you deliberately teach kids bad science?" For the story in the Pennsylvania Inquirer, visit: http://articles.philly.com/2013-08-04/news/41060628_1_creationism-kitzmiller-v-public-school-science-classrooms For Bloom's memo and draft bill (PDF), visit: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20130&cosponId=13142 http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/CSM/2013/0/13142_3843.pdf And for NCSE's previous coverage in Pennsylvania, visit: http://ncse.com/news/pennsylvania 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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