NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/09/20

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear friends of NCSE,

A bill targeting the Next Generation Science Standards is introduced
in Michigan, and climate is the reason. A survey assesses the
attitudes of Ohioans to climate change. The Kansas Republican Party
adopts a resolution opposing the NGSS, while Kentucky's largest
newspaper applauds the state's decision to adopt the NGSS. And in the
pages of BioScience, NCSE's Glenn Branch urges biologists to help to
defend the teaching of climate science.

ANTI-NGSS BILL INTRODUCED IN MICHIGAN

House Bill 4972, introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives
on September 12, 2013, would, if enacted, require that "[t]he state
board model core academic curriculum standards shall not be based on
the Next Generation Science Standards." Additionally, it would
prohibit the state board of education and the state department of
education from adopting, implementing, or aligning assessments to the
NGSS, and prohibit all state officials and agencies from participating
in implementing the NGSS.

The bill's primary sponsor, Tom McMillin (R-District 45), told the
Petoskey News-Review (September 18, 2013) that he was primarily
worried about "turning over our standards to unelected bodies," but he
and cosponsor Greg MacMaster (R-District 105) also acknowledged their
concern about the NGSS's inclusion of global warming: "It does get
into controversial issues such as man-made global warming as fact,”
said McMillin. "That's still somewhat controversial."

MacMaster, a former meteorologist with a meteorological technical
degree in atmospheric science from the Community Colleges of the Air
Force, added, "Before introducing humans [as a driver of climate
change], they need to take a step back and look at hundreds of
millions of years of data to show that humans are behind climate
change. No one’s been able to refute my stance or position yet."

But the Petoskey News-Review asked Christopher Poulsen, a scientist at
the University of Michigan who studies paleoclimate and current global
climate change, for his opinion, reporting, "Poulsen says that
scientists know climate has fluctuated globally because of carbon
dioxide over very long periods of time, but the increase in the amount
of carbon dioxide over the past century has well outpaced what the
natural environment can produce."

Joseph Krajcik, a professor of teacher education at Michigan State
University who helped to develop the NGSS, told the newspaper that the
standards don't teach climate change dogmatically: "If these standards
were in any way trying to do something to make our children less
intellectual, I would be opposed to them. The question these standards
are addressing is, how do they really help our children develop the
scientific habits of mind that allow them to exist in this world."

Michigan, as one of the twenty-six states that collaborated in the
development of the NGSS, is committed to giving serious consideration
to their adoption. HB 4972 was referred to the House Committee on
Education. The bill's primary sponsor is Tom McMillin (R-District 45);
its cosponsors are Bob Genetski (R-District 80), Greg MacMaster
(R-District 105), Ken Goike (R-District 33), and Ray Franz (R-District
101).

For the text of HB 4972 as introduced, visit:
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2013-2014/billintroduced/House/htm/2013-HIB-4972.htm 

For the story in the Petoskey News-Review, visit:
http://articles.petoskeynews.com/2013-09-18/next-generation-science-standards_42192403 

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

POLLING CLIMATE IN OHIO

Seventy percent of Ohioans accept that global warming is happening,
according to a new report from the Yale Project on Climate
Communication. But slightly less than half accept that human activity
is responsible for global warming, and slightly less 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, 16% answered no, and 14%
were not sure.

Asked to assume that global warming is happening and asked why, 49% of
respondents said that it was caused mostly by human activities, 28%
said that it was caused mostly by natural changes in the environment,
9% volunteered that it was caused by both, 8% said none of these
because it isn't happening, and 6% 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, 49% said that there is a lot of disagreement among
scientists about whether or not global warming is happening, 3% said
that most scientists think that global warming is not happening, and
5% were unsure.

The poll was conducted among 800 adult Ohioans by telephones from July
3 to July 10, 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/Ohio_Climate_Change_Report.pdf 

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

KANSAS REPUBLICAN PARTY OPPOSES THE NGSS

The Kansas Republican Party recently adopted a resolution that calls
on state leaders to "prohibit adoption of any standards that require
the state to cede any measure of control over their drafting and
revision, including but not limited to the Next Generation Science
Standards," the Lawrence Journal-World (September 16, 2013) reports.
The Kansas state board of education voted to adopt the Next Generation
Science Standards in June 2013, despite protests over their treatment
of evolution and climate change as central scientific topics.

The 2012 platform of the Kansas Republican Party includes, under the
heading "Building the Knowledge of Students," the sentence, "Kansas
students should be allowed and encouraged to fully discuss and
critique all science-based theories for the origin of life in science
curricula," and, under the heading, "Preserving the Heartland," the
sentence, "Carbon dioxide, one of the most common gases on earth,
should not be declared a pollutant nor used as an excuse to deny the
construction of new power plants in Kansas."

For the story in the Lawrence Journal-World, visit:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/sep/16/state-gop-adopts-resolution-demanding-withdrawal-c/ 

For the Kansas Republican Party's 2012 platform, visit:
http://ksgop.org/state_platform/ 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Kansas, visit:
http:.//ncse.com/kansas

EDITORIAL PRAISE FOR KENTUCKY'S ADOPTION OF THE NGSS

The decision in Kentucky to adopt the Next Generation Science
Standards was editorially praised by the Louisville Courier-Journal
(September 15, 2013). As NCSE previously reported, on September 11,
2013, Governor Steve Beshear announced that he would implement the
standards on his own authority after the Administrative Regulation
Review Subcommittee voted 5-1 to reject the standards as deficient,
despite the fact that the state department of education and state
board of education favored them.

The editorial described the five legislators on the subcommittee who
voted to reject the standards as voting for ignorance, and expressed a
lack of respect for the stated reasons for their votes. Especially
unimpressive was the claim that there was a groundswell of opposition:
"The Kentucky Department of Education said that prior to the meeting,
it received more than 4,000 oral or written comments on the standards,
with 3,700 of them in favor of them. This information was not
discussed at last week’s meeting."

Praising Governor Beshear for his decision to adopt the standards, the
Courier-Journal's editorial warned, "Supporters of science standards
must keep up the fight. It's over for now, but the General Assembly,
when it meets in January, could overrule Gov. Beshear's decision to
enact the standards if lawmakers so choose. That would be a very bad
choice. But it wouldn't be the legislature's first bad decision and
science standards supporters need to stay organized and make sure they
aren't drowned out by a smaller, but louder, anti-science crowd."

For the Courier-Journal's editorial, visit:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130915/OPINION01/309150033/Editorial-Ignorance-not-bliss-science-classes 

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

"DEFENDING SCIENCE EDUCATION: CLIMATE AS A SECOND FRONT FOR BIOLOGISTS"

A viewpoint column entitled "Defending Science Education: Climate as a
Second Front for Biologists," by NCSE's deputy director Glenn Branch,
appeared in the September 2013 issue of BioScience, published by the
American Institute of Biological Sciences.

"It is now routine for evolution and climate change to be targeted
together in attacks on science education in the United States," Branch
observed, citing laws in Tennessee and Louisiana, recent bills in
Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, and Oklahoma, the Texas state
science education standards, and the recent resistance to adopting the
Next Generation Science Standards in Kentucky. "Even in the absence of
organized opposition to the teaching of evolution," he added, "the
situation in K-12 classrooms is famously dire," citing survey results
about the teaching of evolution and of climate change.

Praising biologists for their resistance to creationism, Branch urged,
"It is time for biologists to help resist the danger posed by climate
denial, too. ... As with evolution, it is important to defend the
teaching of climate science simply because it is sound science that
students have a need -- and a right -- to understand." He added, "if
further reasons seem necessary, consider that climate change denial
affects the way in which biology is learned and taught, studied and
applied ... in biological disciplines ranging from agriculture to
zoology." And he suggested a few basic ways for biologists to take
action.

Recalling the rallying cry of Don McLeroy as he sought to degrade the
treatment of evolution and climate change in the Texas state science
standards in 2009, Branch concluded his column by countering,
"Experts, in short, have to stand up to the likes of McLeroy."

For Branch's column (PDF), visit:
http://ncse.com/climate/branch-2013-defending-science-education-climate-as-second-front 

For information about BioScience, visit:
http://www.aibs.org/bioscience/ 

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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