NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2015/11/13
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2015-11-13 17:00.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Sad news of the death of Marshall Berman. And a milestone for NCSE on Facebook.
MARSHALL BERMAN DIES The physicist and science education activist Marshall Berman died on October 25, 2015, at the age of 76, according to a November 8, 2015, obituary from the Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education (CESE) in New Mexico. Passionate about the quality of science education, Berman served for four years on the state board of education and was a leader in the state's science education organizations, including the New Mexico Academy of Science, New Mexicans for Science and Reason, and CESE. Berman became involved in the fight against creationism in 1996, when the state board of education voted to remove references to evolution and the age of the earth from the state's science standards. After lobbying, education, and legislative efforts all failed, Berman won election to the board, and convinced his new colleagues to restore evolution and the age of the earth to the standards. Berman's efforts in New Mexico were recognized by NCSE with a Friend of Darwin award in 1999. Berman was instrumental in rebuffing subsequent efforts to compromise the scientific integrity of the standards and to pass antievolution bills in the state legislature. His motivation was not hard to discern: creationism, in Berman's view, was a threat to "all of science and society," as he explained in a 2005 column published in the American Physical Society's newsletter. In 2006, he told Stanford Medicine Magazine, "It's hard for me to imagine a bigger threat that all of us face. It's time to take action. Get involved in politics and take a stand for science." Berman was born on June 16, 1939, in Detroit, Michigan. He earned his B.S. in physics from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Wayne State University. He spent his professional career at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he worked for thirty-two years on nuclear reactor safety, managing a variety of defense research projects. He also served as the executive director of the U.S. Council of Competitiveness's Innovation Initiative. For the obituary from CESE, visit: http://www.cese.org/cese-founder-dr-marshall-berman-1939-2015/ For Berman's column in the APS newsletter, visit: http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200510/backpage.cfm For the article in Stanford Medicine Magazine, visit: http://sm.stanford.edu/archive/stanmed/2006summer/evo-main.html FACEBOOK: N > 130,000 A milestone: there are now over 130,000 fans of NCSE's Facebook page. Why not join them, by visiting the page and becoming a fan by clicking on the "Like" box by NCSE's name? You'll receive the latest NCSE news delivered straight to your Facebook Home page, as well as updates on evolution-related and climate-related topics. Or if you prefer your news in 140-character chunks, follow NCSE on Twitter. And while you're surfing the web, why not visit NCSE's YouTube channel, with hundreds of videos for your watching pleasure? It's the best place on the web to view talks by NCSE's staff. For NCSE's Facebook page, Twitter feed, and YouTube channel, visit: http://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse http://twitter.com/ncse http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd 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 discussing the significance of the connection between eating processed meats and cancer: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/11/bacon-whoopee-0016728 * Emily Schoerning pondering the emotional roots of science denial: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/11/science-denial-emotional-roots-part-1-0016733 http://ncse.com/blog/2015/11/science-denial-emotional-roots-part-2-0016734 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
» 3615 reads
