NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2014/07/18
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2014-07-18 14:59.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, NCSE's Eugenie C. Scott is astronomically honored. And Wyoming, unsurprisingly, takes notice of the Climate Science Students Bill of Rights.
ASTEROID NAMED FOR NCSE'S SCOTT Asteroid 249530 Eugeniescott was named in honor of NCSE's founding executive director Eugenie C. Scott, according to the Minor Planet Circulars for July 12, 2014. She is described there as "an American physical anthropologist who served as the executive director of the National Center for Science Education for more than 25 years. She improved the teaching of science-based curricula for students throughout the United States." "It's a surprise, but obviously a delightful one," Scott commented. "I'll never look up at the night sky in quite the same way again!" Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator on the project that discovered the asteroid, explained, "Discovering asteroids is science. Since Eugenie Scott has done so much to help people understand how science works, it seemed only fitting to name one after her! I'm very pleased to honor her contributions to science education in this lasting fashion." David Morrison, director of the Carl Sagan Center for Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute and a member of NCSE's Advisory Council, expressed his appreciation of Mainzer's decision to honor Scott, saying, "In her lifelong devotion to science education, Genie has encouraged innumerable students to become scientists and engineers. It is great that her contributions are recognized by assigning her name to an asteroid." Phil Plait, the astronomer and science popularizer known as "The Bad Astronomer," added, "I'm very pleased that Genie Scott now has her name immortalized in the asteroid belt. She is more to me than a friend; her work defending and promoting science has made her one of my heroes. I can't think of anyone else more deserving of this honor." (Plait suggested the idea of honoring Scott to Mainzer, but he credits the idea itself to Bob Blaskiewicz.) Mainzer provided the following information about the discovery of Asteroid Eugeniescott. *** Genie Scott's asteroid was discovered by the near-Earth object hunting portion of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope (WISE), which orbits the Earth and senses asteroids using infrared light. With our infrared telescope, we can sense the heat coming off asteroids as they are warmed by the Sun, which lets us measure size and reflectivity. Asteroid Eugeniescott orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter every 5.3 years. It is about 2.9 kilometers across, and its surface is covered with a dark material suggesting that it was formed in the cooler, outer parts of our solar system. When this object was first discovered by WISE on April 18, 2010, it was given the temporary name 2010 HX14 by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, the only international body with the authority to name asteroids. ... When the permanent number is assigned, the discoverer has the right to suggest a name to the International Astronomical Union, which then votes on the proposal. When the asteroid was assigned the permanent designation 249540, I submitted the proposal to name it Eugeniescott to the IAU, since I am the principal investigator of the NEOWISE project that found it. *** Mainzer also provided one of the discovery images of the asteroid, seen on NCSE's website; the wavelengths of these images range from 3.4 to 22 microns. For information about the asteroid from JPL, visit: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=249540 For the Minor Planet Circulars description of the asteroid (PDF, p. 324), visit: http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/2014/MPC_20140712.pdf And for the discovery image of the asteroid, visit: http://ncse.com/news/2014/07/asteroid-named-ncses-scott-0015752 WYOMING REACTS TO THE CLIMATE BILL OF RIGHTS The Climate Science Students Bill of Rights, which articulates the principle that all students deserve the best climate science education available as part of a 21st-century science education, was widely discussed in Wyoming. Launched on July 10, 2014, the bill of rights is a joint project of NCSE, the Alliance for Climate Education, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Climate Parents. (The text and further information is available on NCSE's website.) The interest in the Climate Science Students Bill of Rights on the part of the Wyoming media was unsurprising since, as NCSE previously reported, in March 2014 the state legislature adopted a budget derailing the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards because of concern about the NGSS's inclusion of climate change. The decision attracted, and continues to attract, wide criticism from the scientific and education communities. As Marguerite Herman of Wyoming for Science Education told WyoFile (July 10, 2014), "Thousands of people in Wyoming and elsewhere were appalled that the deliberate, professional, thorough process of writing quality standards for Wyoming students was stopped by politicians who ... were willing to bar science standards that are recognized as being the best for Wyoming schools." Thus, the Casper Star-Tribune (July 11, 2014) observed, the new campaign was "[m]otivated in part by Wyoming lawmakers who banned a controversial set of K-12 science benchmarks earlier this year." John Friedrich of Climate Parents told the newspaper, "As we see it, given the impact of climate change that we're already seeing and what scientists say is at stake, ... we just think it's unacceptable for students to be denied information about this crisis." NCSE's Mark McCaffrey explained to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle (July 14, 2014) , "[There are] overt efforts, as we've seen in Wyoming, to deliberately block the access of students to learn about climate science." He added, "And a lot of teachers don't have the background, or they think teaching both sides of a phony science controversy is a good plan." The bill of rights is intended to attract support for the teaching of climate science in the face of such opposition. As NCSE previously reported, the Wyoming state board of education halted development of a new set of science standards, leaving the old set, adopted in 2008, in force. Local school districts are apparently free to adopt the NGSS, and about fifteen (of forty-eight) have done so. But Marguerite Herman told the Star-Tribune that "we are advocating for the Legislature to act as soon as it convenes to restore the state board's ability to consider all standards." For the text of and information about the Climate Science Students Bill of Rights, visit: http://ncse.com/taking-action/climate-bill-rights For the WyoFile story, visit: http://wyofile.com/dustin/local-science-education-proponents-back-new-climate-science-student-bill-rights/ For the Casper Star-Tribune story, visit: http://trib.com/news/local/education/national-groups-launch-science-education-campaign/article_ec1c1228-41dd-5d8e-ad24-1c0817f2650a.html For the Wyoming Tribune News story, visit: http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2014/07/11/news/19local_07-11-14.txt And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Wyoming, visit: http://ncse.com/news/wyoming 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: * Ann Reid explaining a new breakthrough in antibiotics: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/07/antibiotic-batman-finds-his-robin-part-1-0015746 http://ncse.com/blog/2014/07/antibiotic-batman-finds-his-robin-part-2-0015747 * Glenn Branch defining twenty-five obscure words in a book about the Scopes trial: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/07/ginger-glossary-part-1-0015739 http://ncse.com/blog/2014/07/ginger-glossary-part-2-0015740 * Eugenie C. Scott telling a tale from NCSE's recent excursion to the Grand Canyon: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/07/back-from-ncse-creationist-grand-canyon-trip-0015751 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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