NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/11/15
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2013-11-15 14:42.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, The Dallas Observer looks at Texas antievolutionism past and present. NCSE offers a preview of John Gurche's Shaping Humanity. The executive director of the National Science Teachers Association offers good advice to the Texas state board of education. And a new survey examines public opinion about climate change in Canada.
CREATIONISM'S LAST STAND IN TEXAS? As the Texas state board of education is preparing for its final public hearing on science textbook adoption, the Dallas Observer (November 14, 2013) published a marvelously detailed look at Texas antievolutionism past and present. The article begins with Raymond Bohlin, Vice-President of Vision Outreach for Probe Ministries and a Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. Although Bohlin earned a master's degree in population genetics and a doctorate in molecular and cell biology, he "never accepted the hypothesis central to his discipline, hardened in the crucible of 150 years of experimentation, validated by the advent of modern genetics." Bohlin told the Observer that he undertook his studies in order to be able to debunk evolution: "If I'm going to be a critic of evolution, I have to make sure I understand in detail how it's supposed to work." Bohlin is relevant to the Texas science textbook adoption because, the Observer explains, "His great investment in a field he entered to debunk had led him to the Texas State Board of Education, where he was appointed to be an expert reviewer of high-school biology textbooks. This, he believes, is where the war against secularism will be won or lost." As NCSE previously reported, ideologues on the official state textbook review teams attacked the treatment of evolution and climate change in science textbooks under consideration in Texas -- and Bohlin was a primary offender, offering misguided advice about evolution and climate science alike. Ron Wetherington, Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University (and a recipient of NCSE's Friend of Darwin award), commented, "There are no intelligent people on the side of creationism who are still urging the teaching of creationism in form or function," adding, "It's not worth it for them to do that, so they're putting all their eggs in the basket of undermining evolution." But the signs are that the publishers are not willing to capitulate: presumably paraphrasing, Wetherington described one publisher as responding to a creationism-inflected critique of its textbook by replying, "Up yours, we're not going to change anything." The publishers are emboldened by the fact that the board's decision is not as important as it was, the Observer suggests, since "school districts are free to make their own purchasing decisions now ... A thorough vetting from the state board still represents a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval that smaller districts will rely on to ensure their books meet Texas'[s] curriculum standards. The board's vote will be influential for years to come, but is no longer the edict [it] once was." In the future, battles over Texas textbooks may occur at the level of the individual school district -- of which there are over one thousand in the state -- rather than at the board. The textbooks are scheduled to be addressed during a public hearing before the Texas state board of education, starting at 1:00 p.m. on November 20, 2013, in Room 1-104 of the William B. Travis Building, 1701 N. Congress Avenue in Austin. For the Dallas Observer's article, visit: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2013-11-14/news/creationists-last-stand-at-the-state-board-of-education/full/ For information about the board's meeting on November 20, visit: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/sboe/agenda/ And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Texas, visit: http://ncse.com/news/texas A PREVIEW OF SHAPING HUMANITY NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview of John Gurche's Shaping Humanity: How Science, Art, and Imagination Help Us Understand Our Origins (Yale University Press, 2013). The preview consists of chapter 3, "The Impossible Discovery," in which Gurce relates the history of Raymond Dart's discovery of the Taung skull, explains the current state of paleoanthropological thinking about Australopithecus africanus, and describes his own work reconstructing the head of A. africanus for the new Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian Institution. "John Gurche brilliantly brings the long human past alive with his powerful reconstructions of our extinct precursors, and skillfully explains just where the boundaries lie between art and science in his demanding profession," writes Ian Tattersall. Gurche is artist-in-residence at the Paleontological Research Institute's Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York; his paleoanthropological sculptures appear in major natural history museums, including the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Field Museum. For the preview of Shaping Humanity (PDF), visit: http://ncse.com/book-excerpt For information about the book from its publisher, visit: http://www.yalebooks.com/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300182026 NSTA'S ADVICE TO TEXAS The executive director of the National Science Teachers Association called on the Texas state board of education to "reject any pressure to promote any nonscientific views in its textbooks or classrooms." Writing on Live Science (November 8, 2013), David Evans insisted, "presenting non-scientific or religious ideas in science class or in science textbooks is simply wrong and blurs the line about what is and what is not science. This will only confuse and mislead students and does nothing to improve the quality of science education and everything to weaken it." As NCSE previously reported, publishers submitted their proposed science textbooks for adoption in Texas in April 2013, and review panels, composed of Texans chosen by the state board of education, were responsible for evaluating them. Although ideologues on the panels attacked the treatment of evolution and climate change in the textbooks, the publishers stood firm, making no changes that compromised the scientific integrity of their materials. In his column, Evans congratulated the publishers "for standing up for science and rejecting non-science views" on behalf of the NSTA. NCSE's Joshua Rosenau, who traveled to Austin in September 2013 to testify before the board in defense of the textbooks, will return there to monitor the board's deliberations. "The decisions that the board makes next week will affect science education in Texas, and nationally, for years to come," Rosenau explained. "It's vital that NCSE be present -- and that our members show up, too." The textbooks are scheduled to be addressed during a public hearing starting at 1:00 p.m. on November 20, 2013, in Room 1-104 of the William B. Travis Building, 1701 N. Congress Avenue in Austin. For Evans's column at Live Science, visit: http://www.livescience.com/41080-standing-up-for-science-in-texas.html For information about the board's meeting on November 20, visit: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/sboe/agenda/ And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Texas, visit: http://ncse.com/news/texas POLLING CLIMATE IN CANADA What do Canadians think about climate change?" Relative to respondents in the U.S., Canadians are more convinced that climate change is occurring, more concerned about it, and more willing to pay to address the issue," according to a researcher quoted in a November 6, 2013, press release from Canada 2020 -- a thinktank offering progressive policy for a modern Canada" -- describing the results of the Canada 2020/Université de Montréal National Survey of Canadian Opinions on Climate Change. Asked, "From what you've read and heard, is there solid evidence that the average temperature of earth has been getting warmer over the past four decades," 81% of Canadian respondents said yes, 12% said no, and 8% said that they were not sure. Acceptance of global warming was highest in Quebec and the Maritimes (85%) and Ontario (82%), lowest in Manitoba and Saskatchewan (65%) and Alberta (71%). In the United States, 61% of respondents said yes, 25% said no, and 14% said that they were not sure. Those who said that there was solid evidence of global warming were then asked, "Is the earth getting warmer because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, or mostly because of natural patterns in the earth's environment?" In Canada, 58% of respondents attributed it to human activity, 15% to natural patterns, and 23% to a combination; 4% said that they were not sure. In the United States, 40% of respondents attributed it to human activity, 21% to natural patterns, and 36% to a combination; 3% said that they were not sure. The Canadian portion of the survey was administered by Léger to a nationally representative sample of 1,502 adult Canadians (aged 18 and over). All surveys were conducted via telephone in English and French from October 10 to October 20, 2013. Calls were made using both landline and mobile phone listings. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 2.5% in 19 out of 20 samples. Results were weighted according to gender, age, language and region to reflect the latest population estimates from Statistics Canada (Census 2011). The American portion of the survey was administered by the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion to a nationally representative sample of 984 adult Americans (aged 18 and over). All surveys were conducted from October 3 to October 14, 2013. Calls were made using both landline and mobile phone listings. The margin of sampling error for the US sample is +/- 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Results were weighted to gender, race income, educational attainment and age to reflect the most recent population estimates from the 2010 US census. For the Canada 2020 press release, visit: http://canada2020.ca/latestnews/new-poll-canadians-want-federal-leadership-on-climate-change/ For the report of the survey (PDF), visit: http://www.canada2020.ca/climatepoll/docs/Cross_Tabs-Canada_2020_U_of_M_Climate_Poll.pdf And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate change, visit: http://ncse.com/polls/polls-climate-change 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: * Minda Berbeco debunking a creationist misrepresentation of evolution and climate science: http://ncse.com/blog/2013/11/failing-acid-test-0015163 * Glenn Branch discussing creationism in Europe with Stefaan Blancke: http://ncse.com/blog/2013/11/creationism-europe-part-1-0015145 http://ncse.com/blog/2013/11/creationism-europe-part-2-0015146 * Mark McCaffrey reporting on the preliminary results of a survey of climate educators: http://ncse.com/blog/2013/10/very-important-priority-0015150 * Josh Rosenau estimating how many young-earth creationists there are in the United States: http://ncse.com/blog/2013/11/just-how-many-young-earth-creationists-are-there-us-0015164 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 Check out NCSE's new blog, Science League of America: http://ncse.com/blog 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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