NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2015/08/07
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2015-08-07 16:09.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Iowa becomes the fifteenth state to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards. And a glimpse of Richard C. Francis's Domesticated.
NGSS ADOPTED IN IOWA The Iowa Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards at its August 6, 2015, meeting. Iowa thus becomes the fifteenth state to adopt the NGSS, joining Arkansas (so far only for middle school), California, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia. Earlier in 2015, a bill in the Iowa House of Representatives would have prevented Iowa from adopting the NGSS. As NCSE previously reported, the sponsor of House File 272 objected to the fact that the standards were not written in Iowa, but was also concerned that the standards "present evolution as scientific fact and shine a human light on human impacts on climate change." The bill died in committee on March 6, 2015. During public review of the standards, a small number of comments "negatively referenced biological evolution as a science standard" and urged the elimination of disciplinary core ideas about climate change, according to the science standards review team. A petition signed by 307 people urging the retention of the climate science material was also received. No changes to the standards were made in response to these comments. For the science standards review team's report (PDF), visit: https://www.educateiowa.gov/sites/files/ed/documents/2015-08-06%20Science%20Standards%20Tab%20E.pdf And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Iowa, visit; http://ncse.com/news/iowa A GLIMPSE OF DOMESTICATED NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview of Richard C. Francis's Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World (W. W. Norton, 2015). The preview consists of chapter 3, "Cats," in which Francis concludes, "The vast majority of cats have escaped artificial selection. They are self-domesticated." The reviewer for Publishers Weekly writes, "Offering an effective primer on molecular genetics and the field of evolutionary development, [Francis] also demonstrates how conservative evolution can be, even while documenting some of the amazing changes species have undergone in relatively short periods of time due to strong selection imposed by humans." For the preview of Domesticated (PDF), visit: http://ncse.com/book-excerpt For information about the book from its publisher, visit: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Domesticated/ 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: * Stephanie Keep assessing the significance of Tetrapodophis amplectus: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/07/tetrapodophis-amplectus-is-it-archaeopteryx-squamate-world-0016545 * Glenn Branch returning to fact, theory, and path: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/07/fact-theory-path-again-part-1-0016489 http://ncse.com/blog/2015/07/fact-theory-path-again-part-2-0016490 * Josh Rosenau relating how science students helped to end segregated blood banks: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/08/how-science-students-helped-end-segregated-blood-banks-0016561 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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