NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2015/04/17
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2015-04-17 14:03.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, A revival of the repeal effort in Louisiana. Plus reaction to the new science standards in West Virginia and a new contribution from NCSE to Evolution: Education and Outreach.
REPEAL EFFORT REVIVED AGAIN IN LOUISIANA Senate Bill 74, dubbed the "Intelligent Outcomes Wanted Act," would, if enacted, repeal Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:285.1, which implemented the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, passed and enacted in 2008. Governor Bobby Jindal told NBC News in 2013 that the LSEA permits the teaching of creationism, including "intelligent design." The bill to repeal the LSEA was introduced by Karen Carter Peterson (D-District 5), who sponsored the similar SB 70 in 2011, SB 374 in 2012, SB 26 in 2013, and SB 175 in 2014. Those four bills were all eventually shelved by the Senate Committee on Education. SB 74 was prefiled in the Louisiana Senate on March 31, 2015, and subsequently referred to the Senate Committee on Education. The law targeted for repeal calls on state and local education administrators to help to promote "critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning"; these four topics were described as controversial in the original draft of the legislation. It also allows teachers to use "supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner" if so permitted by their local school boards. A sponsor of the bill told the Hammond Daily Star (April 6, 2008) that the bill was aimed at promoting the discussion of "scientific data related to creationism." Since 2008, antievolutionists have not only sought to undermine the law's provision allowing challenges to unsuitable supplementary materials but have also reportedly invoked the law to support proposals to teach creationism in at least two parishes -- Livingston and Tangipahoa -- and to attack the treatment of evolution in biology textbooks proposed for adoption by the state. Meanwhile, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology urged Louisianans to repeal the law in 2008, and the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology decided to hold its conferences elsewhere while the law remains on the books (relenting only in the case of New Orleans after the Orleans Parish School Board prohibited the teaching of creationism in its science classes). Endorsers of the repeal effort include a group of seventy-eight Nobel laureates in the sciences (representing nearly 40% of living Nobel laureates in the sciences), the National Association of Biology Teachers, the Louisiana Association of Biology Educators, the Louisiana Coalition for Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute for Biological Sciences, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Cell Biology, the Society for the Study of Evolution together with the Society of Systematic Biologists and the American Society of Naturalists, the Clergy Letter Project, the New Orleans City Council, and the Baton Rouge Advocate. For Louisiana's Senate Bill 74 as introduced (PDF), visit: http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=933046 And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Louisiana, visit: http://ncse.com/news/louisiana REACTION TO WEST VIRGINIA'S NEW SCIENCE STANDARDS "Some groups that denounced now-rejected changes to West Virginia’s upcoming K-12 science standards regarding global warming are disappointed in new modifications but view them as less harmful than the previous version," according to the Charleston Gazette (April 11, 2015). As NCSE previously reported, in December 2014, the West Virginia board of education adopted a new set of science standards, based on the Next Generation Science Standards, but quietly revised by the board before their adoption in December 2014 to downplay the scientific consensus on the role of human activity in recent climate change. After outcry from scientific, educational, and environmental groups within and outside the state, including from NCSE, the board decided to revert to the original version of the standards. On April 9, 2015, however, the board again revised sections of the standards dealing with climate change before voting to adopt them. NCSE's Glenn Branch told the Gazette that the new standards still represent progress, noting that they are "certainly an improvement" over the standards adopted in December 2014 as well as the state's previous science standards. "Hopefully, they're now out of the hands of politicians who want to meddle with them," Branch commented. Libby Strong, the president of the West Virginia Science Teachers Association, agreed, telling the Gazette that although the new changes are disappointing, they are not as problematic as the previous changes. A further delay would be unfortunate, she added: "The teachers deserve the new standards and the new materials." The discussion of the new standards reached the pages of The New York Times (April 11, 2015). NCSE's Josh Rosenau told the newspaper that the new changes were acceptable, since they do not introduce false information about climate change, but added, "I can't quite motivate myself to shout 'Victory!' from the rooftops." For the story in the Charleston Gazette, visit: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150411/GZ01/150419881 For the story in The New York Times, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/science/state-again-sets-changes-for-schools-on-climate.html And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in West Virginia, visit: http://ncse.com/news/west-virginia NCSE'S LATEST IN EVOLUTION: EDUCATION AND OUTREACH "Wading into the Undeniable," by NCSE's Stephanie Keep, Ann Reid, and Glenn Branch, was just published in Evolution: Education and Outreach. The essay criticizes Nicholas Wade's proposal, in his review for The Wall Street Journal of Bill Nye's book Undeniable (2014), to defuse controversies over the teaching of evolution by finessing the definition of "theory". "On inspection," Keep, Reid, and Branch charge, "Wade's proposal misidentifies the focus of the creationist objection to evolution, distorts the nature of science, and involves a blatant equivocation." Founded in 2008, Evolution: Education and Outreach seeks to promote the accurate understanding and comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory for a wide audience. Starting with its first issue, NCSE regularly contributed a column under the rubric "Overcoming Obstacles to Evolution Education." In 2013, the journal became completely open access, and NCSE is now continuing to contribute "Overcoming Obstacles to Evolution Education" columns under the new system. The first five volumes of Evolution: Education and Outreach are now freely available as well. For "Wading into the Undeniable" (PDF), visit: http://www.evolution-outreach.com/content/pdf/s12052-015-0035-6.pdf For the content of the journal from volume 6 (2013) onward, visit: http://www.evolution-outreach.com/ For the content of the journal from volume 1 (2008) to volume 5 (2012), visit: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/12052 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: * Glenn Branch researching the history of a threefold distinction: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/04/whence-fact-theory-path-0016270 * Stephanie Keep pondering the revival of "Brontosaurus": http://ncse.com/blog/2015/04/you-say-apatosaur-i-say-brontosaur-let-s-just-call-whole-0016289 http://ncse.com/blog/2015/04/you-say-apatosaur-i-say-brontosaur-let-s-just-call-whole-0016290 * Glenn Branch contemplating Darwin's career as a vampire slayer: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/04/charles-darwin-vampire-slayer-0016288 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
» 3271 reads
