NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2014/05/30
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2014-05-30 14:53.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, The derailment of the Next Generation Science Standards in Wyoming continues to provoke comment. Plus a squeaker of a victory in Oklahoma, and sad news of the death of Gerald Edelman.
CRITICISM OF THE WYOMING LEGISLATURE CONTINUES The decision of the Wyoming legislature to prevent the state from adopting the Next Generation Science Standards because of concerns about their presentation of climate change continues to attract spirited criticism in editorial and opinion columns, both in Wyoming and nationally. In a column for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle (May 17, 2014), Marguerite Herman systematically debunked the arguments of the Wyoming opponents of the NGSS, which she described as "hyperbole and misdirection." She concluded, "Let's all focus on the facts and resist the distractions of political hyperbole and histrionics. Keep your eye on the rabbit of good, evidence-based science standards for our students. Get your critical thinking caps on." Writing in the Casper Star-Tribune (May 23, 2014), Audrey Cotherman -- a former Wyoming deputy state superintendent of schools -- sarcastically recommended, "we should applaud a Legislature that in one tiny footnote can violate young people's right to the best knowledge available, the local control of school boards, the separation of church and state, and the purpose of the founding Fathers in creating mandatory, free, education. But I don't." The New York Times (May 24, 2014) editorially described the decision as "truly depressing," explaining that although it was apparently motivated by the idea that allowing students to learn about climate change would threaten the energy industry, "it seemed also to be a willful effort to leave a whole generation of children in the dark about climate science. This is more than standard-issue political posturing. It is madness." In the Boston Globe (May 28, 2014), Derrick Z. Jackson excoriated "the spasm of ignorance that continues to prolong national inaction on climate change," adding, "The Wyoming legislature refused to approve the national standards because it was afraid they would turn children against the state's coal and oil industry." He concluded, "With each state that denies science, the nation moves closer to the tipping point where the cost is beyond control." In the meantime, according to the Casper Star-Tribune (May 27, 2014), the state department of education is reconstituting the science standards review committee; a spokesperson for the department explained, "no portion or any documents that have any portion of the NGSS are to be reviewed in the committee." For Marguerite Herman's column in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, visit: http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2014/05/25/opinion/guest_column/01column_05-18-14.txt For Audrey Cotherman's column in the Casper Star-Tribune, visit: http://trib.com/opinion/columns/cotherman-how-to-compound-mistakes/article_f5999eab-8390-52f0-bc71-809cb4e025b9.html For the editorial in The New York Times, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/opinion/sunday/willful-ignorance-in-wyoming.html For Derrick Z. Jackson's column in the Boston Globe, visit: http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2014/05/28/wyoming-rejection-climate-change-science-education/EFQC1tnNOOAfPjx2fkp9dI/story.html For the story in the Casper Star-Tribune, visit: http://trib.com/news/local/education/wyoming-calls-for-volunteers-for-science-education-standards-review/article_df64b00c-e4e7-55db-9789-d9e4709c404f.html And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Wyoming, visit: http://ncse.com/news/wyoming A LAST-MINUTE VICTORY IN OKLAHOMA When the Oklahoma legislature adjourned on May 23, 2014, the attempt to derail Oklahoma's new state science standards was stymied. 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 toldthe 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. But when House Joint Resolution 1099 -- a routine resolution approving or disapproving proposed permanent rules of Oklahoma state agencies -- went to the House Administrative Rules and Government Insight Committee, however, the new standards were attacked. The attacks focused on the use of the Next Generation Science Standards as a resource and on the presentation of climate science in early grade levels, according to a May 13, 2014, post on the blog of the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association. The committee amended HJR 1099 to reject the state department of education's rules implementing the new standards. On May 21, 2014, HJR 1099 as amended passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 55-31 vote. The bill proceeded to the Senate Rules Committee, which showed no signs of wanting to consider it. Undeterred, opponents of the standards took their fight to the Senate floor, where, on May 23, 2014, Senator Anthony Sykes (R-District 24) moved to amend the similar House Joint Resolution 1097 to include disapproval of the rules implementing the new standards, saying, "global warming is the main concern." The amendment was accepted on a 25-14 vote, and the amended bill was then passed on a 32-9 vote. HJR 1097, as amended by the Senate, then returned to the House, which, however, failed to consider it before the legislature's sine die adjournment. For the story in the Oklahoman, visit: 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 post at the blog of the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association, visit: http://www.oklahomascienceteachersassociation.org/?p=5710 For information about Oklahoma's House Joint Resolutions 1099 and 1097, visit: http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HJR1099 http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HJR1097 And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Oklahoma, visit: http://ncse.com/news/oklahoma GERALD EDELMAN DIES The eminent biologist Gerald Edelman died on May 17, 2014, at the age of 84, according to The New York Times (May 22, 2014). In 1972, Edelman and Rodney R. Porter shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies." In addition to immunology, Edelman was interested also in neurobiology, founding the Neurosciences Institute, "a non-profit scientific research organization dedicated to learning about the brain for the benefit of mankind," in 1981, and in consciousness, expounding his ideas in such books as Neural Darwinism (Basic Books, 1987), Bright Air, Brilliant Fire (Basic Books, 1993), and Wider than the Sky (Yale University Press, 2004). In his work on immunology and consciousness alike, Edelman stressed the usefulness of Darwinian thinking. In Bright Air, Brilliant Fire, for example, he wrote of the immune selective system, "Here is a molecular recognition system that is noncognitive and highly specific, the explanation of which is a marvelous example of population thinking -- the essence of Darwinism. Like evolution, it has a generator of diversity ..., a means of perpetuating changes by a kind of heredity ..., and a means of differentially amplifying selection effects." Similarly, he wrote that his theory of neuronal group selection "has definite parallels to Darwinian notions ... In evolution, differences among various organisms' adaptations to the environment lead to differences among reproductive processes, which lead in turn to changes in the frequencies of genes in the population. In neuronal group selection, differences in connectivity, synaptic structure, and the morphology of neurons in the primary repertoire, after confrontation with different correlated patterns of signals from the environment, lead to differences in the probabilities of their responses as groups. This reflects changes in the patterns of their synaptic strengths. There is differential reproduction in one case, differential amplification in the other." Edelman was born in Queens, New York, on July 1, 1929. He received his B.S. from Ursinus College in 1950 and his M.D. from the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1954. After stints at the Massachusetts General Hospital and in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, he enrolled at the Rockefeller Institute, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1960. He remained as a professor at Rockefeller University until 1992, when he joined the Department of Neurobiology at the Scripps Research Institute. Besides the Nobel Prize, his honors included at least sixteen honorary degrees, membership in the National Academy of Sciences, and the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry given by the American Chemical Society in 1965. For the obituary in The New York Times, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/science/gerald-m-edelman-nobel-laureate-and-neural-darwinist-dies-at-84.html 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: * Steven Newton taking on Pat Sajak and Ann Coulter on climate change: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/pat-sajak-ann-coulter-how-media-fail-climate-change-0015618 * Glenn Branch reviewing evolution in state political party platforms: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/party-time-part-1-0015606 http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/party-time-part-2-0015607 http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/party-time-part-3-0015608 http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/party-time-part-4-0015609 * Stephanie Keep, RNCSE's new editor, making her blogging debut: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/05/new-finger-pie-0015628 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 x303 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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