NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2014/10/24
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2014-10-24 14:48.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, A reminder that speakers from NCSE are available. And over 24,000 Texans are calling for errors in the coverage of climate change in social studies textbooks under consideration to be corrected.
NEED A SPEAKER? As the only national organization that is wholly dedicated to defending the teaching of evolution and climate change in the public schools, NCSE is the perfect place to find someone to speak to your organization or university about issues relevant to evolution and climate education and attacks on either or both. Available speakers include NCSE's executive director Ann Reid, Minda Berbeco, Glenn Branch, Mark McCaffrey, Joshua Rosenau, and Steven Newton, as well as NCSE's founding executive director Eugenie C. Scott and four (past or present) members of our board of directors, Barbara Forrest, Kevin Padian, Andrew J. Petto, and Benjamin D. Santer. So if you need a speaker, please feel free to visit the speakers information page on the NCSE website or get in touch with the NCSE office. If nobody from NCSE is available or suitable, we'll try to find you someone who is! For the speaker information page, visit: http://ncse.com/about/speakers For NCSE's contact information, visit: http://ncse.com/contact TEXANS TO PUBLISHERS: FIX FLAWED TEXTBOOKS Over 24,000 Texans have signed petitions calling on the Texas board of education to require the correction of errors in the coverage of climate change in social studies textbooks presently under consideration. As NCSE previously reported, among the problematic claims are a statement that fossil fuel emissions have caused a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica; a claim that scientists "disagree about what is causing climate change"; and a quotation from a notorious climate change denial organization presented in rebuttal of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The petitions were delivered in person to the board and the publishers on October 20, 2014. In a joint press release issued the same day by NCSE, the Texas Freedom Network, and Climate Parents, NCSE's Josh Rosenau explained, "From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters, teachers and school boards want textbooks that handle climate change accurately, and they are watching to see which publishers fix these errors." He added, "These petitions show that parents, teachers, students, and voters across Texas will make sure the board doesn't let these errors slip into their classrooms." "Students in Texas and around the country will be living with the consequences of climate change for the rest of their lives," Ryan Valentine of the Texas Freedom Network commented. "They deserve textbooks that tell them the truth about what they are up against." And Lisa Hoyos of Climate Parents added, "Censoring climate science in order to sell books is unethical and an unacceptable disservice to students, and must be corrected." The Texas state board of education is expected to vote in November 2014 about which textbooks to place on the approved list for use in the state. For the press release, visit: http://ncse.com/taking-action-climate/texans-to-publishers-fix-flawed-textbooks For the websites of the Texas Freedom Network and Climate Parents, visit: http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=TFN_homepage http://www.climateparents.org/ And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Texas, visit: http://ncse.com/news/texas 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 explaining the latest in the fight over Texas social studies textbooks: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/10/there-s-still-time-to-fix-texas-textbooks-0015942 * Mark McCaffrey discussing whom the public trusts to communicate climate science: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/10/trusted-messengers-0015934 * Glenn Branch investigating whether a 1925 Hungarian play anticipated Inherit the Wind: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/10/inherit-wind-avant-lettre-part-1-0015923 http://ncse.com/blog/2014/10/inherit-wind-avant-lettre-part-2-0015924 http://ncse.com/blog/2014/10/inherit-wind-avant-lettre-part-3-0015925 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
» 3835 reads
