NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2014/05/23

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear friends of NCSE,

A new webinar from NCSE is on the horizon. Oklahoma takes a further
step toward derailing its new science standards. A new issue of
Reports of the NCSE is available on-line. Plus South Carolina adopted
a new official state fossil without pandering to creationists, and
both antievolution bills in Missouri are now dead.

NCSE'S NEXT WEBINAR FOR ACTIVISTS

NCSE is pleased to announce the next of a new seriesof on-line
workshops aimed at broadening and deepening the networks that make our
work possible. The next workshop focuses on debunking and confronting
science denial, describing resources and techniques as well as
offering a chance to share experiences.

Featured speakers are Shauna Theel from the climate and energy project
at Media Matters for America and John Cook of Skeptical Science and
the University of Queensland's Global Change Institute. The panel will
be moderated by NCSE's Josh Rosenau.

The workshop begins at 1:00 p.m. Pacific time/4:00 p.m. Eastern time
on May 28, 2014, and spaces are still available, so register now! (The
session will be recorded, so don't worry if you're unable to register
or participate.) Recording of the previous webinars in the series are
now available on-line, along with the slides used in the
presentations.

For information about the upcoming NCSE webinar, visit:
http://ncse.com/taking-action/debunking-confronting-science-denial 

And for information on the series of webinars, visit:
http://ncse.com/taking-action/online-trainings-science-education-advocates-activists 

OKLAHOMA HOUSE VOTES TO DERAIL SCIENCE STANDARDS

House Joint Resolution 1099, which would reject the state department
of education's rules implementing Oklahoma's new science standards,
was passed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 55-31 vote on
May 21, 2014. Part of the reason, the Tulsa World (May 22, 2014)
explained, was that "[s]ome legislators ... objected to language they
said appeared to encourage an 'agenda' concerning climate change."

As NCSE previously reported, the state board of education unanimously
voted to adopt the new standards on March 25, 2014. The new Oklahoma
Academic Standards for Science are the product of more than a year of
work by a committee of more than sixty members, the state department
of education's director of science education Tiffany Neill told the
Oklahoman (March 26, 2014). The standards were widely regarded as a
vast improvement on their predecessors, which received a grade of F in
the Fordham Institute's 2012 study of state science standards. If HJR
1099 is enacted, the old standards will continue to be in effect.

The resolution is now with the Senate Rules Committee. Oklahomans for
Excellence in Science Education and the Oklahoma Science Teachers
Association are both calling on concerned Oklahomans to express their
opposition to HJR 1099 to the committee's members, the Senate
President pro tem, and the governor, who could approve the rules
implementing the standards even if the legislature withholds its
approval.

For information about Oklahoma's House Joint Resolution 1099, visit:
http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HJR1099 

For the stories in the Tulsa World and the Oklahoman, visit:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/house-moves-on-education-measures-judges-pay/article_8863e36e-b2a6-51e9-bb3a-49d342f92637.html 
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-board-of-education-adopts-new-science-standards/article/3946962 

For the Fordham Institute's evaluation of Oklahoma's old science
standards (PDF), visit:
http://www.edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2012/2012-State-of-State-Science-Standards/2012-State-Science-Standards-Oklahoma.pdf 

For the websites of Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education and
the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association, visit:
http://www.oklascience.org/ 
http://www.oklahomascienceteachersassociation.org/ 

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

RNCSE 34:3 NOW ON-LINE

NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the
National Center for Science Education is now available on-line.The
issue -- volume 34, number 3 -- contains three articles about the
nineteenth-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, by James T.
Costa, Sherrie Lyons, and Richard Milner. And for his regular People
and Places column, Randy Moore discusses the Natural History Museum in
London.

Plus a host of reviews of books on physics, astronomy, and chemistry:
Sonya Bahar reviews Peter M. Hoffmann's Life's Ratchet, David W.
Deamer reviews Addy Pross's What is Life?, Gordon Kane reviews
Lawrence M. Krauss's A Universe from Nothing, David Morrison reviews
Jacob Berkowitz's The Stardust Revolution, Ian H. Redmount reviews
Carlos I. Calle's The Universe, and Frank Schmidt reviews Adam
Rutherford's Creation.

All of these articles, features, and reviews are freely available in
PDF form from http://reports.ncse.com. Members of NCSE will shortly be 
receiving in the mail the print supplement to Reports 34:3, which, in
addition to summaries of the on-line material, contains news from the
membership, a regular column in which NCSE staffers offer personal
reports on what they've been doing to defend the teaching of
evolution, a regular column interviewing NCSE's favorite people, and
more besides. (Not a member? Join today!)

For the table of contents for RNCSE 34:3, visit:
http://reports.ncse.com/index.php/rncse/issue/current/showToc 

For information about joining NCSE, visit:
http://ncse.com/join 

A MAMMOTH VICTORY IN SOUTH CAROLINA

The Columbian mammoth is now the official state fossil of South
Carolina after Governor Nikki Haley signed House Bill 4482 into law on
May 16, 2014 -- and there was no mention of the Sixth Day of Creation.

As NCSE previously reported, the bill was introduced at the behest of
eight-year-old paleontology enthusiast Olivia McConnell, who proposed
that the mammoth would be appropriate; among the first vertebrate
fossils found in North America were mammoth teeth excavated in South
Carolina in 1725. Amended to specify that the Columbian mammoth
(Mammuthus columbi) would be the official state fossil, HB 4482 passed
the House in February 2014 and was reported favorably by the Senate
Committee on Judiciary. When the bill reached the Senate floor in late
March 2014, however, controversy ensued.

In the Senate, Kevin L. Bryant (R-District 3) sought to amend the bill
to designate Genesis 1:24-25, which describes the sixth day of
creation, as the official state passage from an ancient historical
text. When his amendment was ruled out of order, Bryant sought to
amend the bill to add "as created on the Sixth Day with the other
beasts of the field" after each instance of "mammoth." As amended, the
bill was passed by the Senate in April 2014. The House rejected the
amendment, however, and a conference committee subsequently deleted
the language about the Sixth Day of Creation.

Meanwhile, South Carolina's state science standards are still in
limbo. As NCSE previously reported, the Educational Oversight
Committee is proposing to amend the new state science standards to
call for students to "[c]onstruct scientific arguments that seem to
support and scientific arguments that seem to discredit Darwinian
Natural selection." The suggestion was owing to Senator Mike Fair
(R-District 6), a member of the committee, who spearheaded a number of
previous antievolution efforts in South Carolina, both in the Senate
and on the EOC.

The proposal now proceeds to the state board of education, which
already voted in January 2014 to adopt the new standards without such
a requirement, rejecting two different proposals that would have
compromised the treatment of evolution in the process.

For information about South Carolina's House Bill 4482, visit:
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=4482&session=120&summary=B 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in South Carolina, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/south-carolina 

ANTIEVOLUTION BILLS DIE IN MISSOURI

Two antievolution bills died in committee in the Missouri House of
Representatives on May 16, 2014, when the legislature adjourned.

House Bill 1472 would have, if enacted, required school districts to
allow parents to have their children excused from learning about
evolution: "Any school district or charter school which provides
instruction relating to the theory of evolution by natural selection"
would have to have "a policy on parental notification and a mechanism
where a parent can choose to remove the student from any part of the
district's or school's instruction on evolution." Parents and
guardians would receive a notification containing "[t]he basic content
of the district's or school's evolution instruction to be provided to
the student" and "[t]he parent's right to remove the student from any
part of the district's or school's evolution instruction." Interviewed
by the Kansas City Star (February 6, 2014), the bill's sponsor Rick
Brattin (R-District 55) described evolution as "just as much faith
and, you know, just as much pulled out of the air as, say, any
religion." HB 1472 was passed by the House Committee on Elementary and
Secondary Education on March 12, 2014, but subsequently died in the
House Rules Committee.

House Bill 1587 would have, if enacted, deprived administrators of the
ability to prevent teachers from miseducating students about
"scientific controversies," specifically citing "the theory of
biological and hypotheses of chemical evolution" as controversial. HB
1587 would have required state and local educational authorities to
"assist teachers to find more effective ways to present the science
curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies and permit
teachers "to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review
in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific
weaknesses of the theory of biological and hypotheses of chemical
evolution"; it would have prevented such authorities from
"prohibit[ing] any teacher in a public school system of this state
from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an
objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of
biological or chemical evolution whenever these subjects are taught."
The bill was referred to the House Committee on Elementary and
Secondary Education, where it died without a hearing.

In all, seven antievolution bills were introduced in five states
(Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia) in 2014;
none won passage.

For information about Missouri's House Bill 1472, visit:
http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB1472 

For the story from the Kansas City Star, visit:
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/06/4803445/missouri-bill-would-let-parents.html 

For information about Missouri's House Bill 1587, visit:
http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB1587 

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

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:

* Josh Rosenau hankering after a debate between Pat Robertson and Ken Ham:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/creationism-debate-i-can-endorse-0015600 

* David Almandsmith considering young-earth creationist attitudes
toward dangers from space:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/acts-facts-pacifiers-0015601 

* Peter Hess contemplating the theological differences between Ken Ham
and Pat Robertson:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/creationism-house-divided-0015603 

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 

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http://reports.ncse.com 

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