NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2017/11/17
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2017-11-17 15:17.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Congratulations to Bertha Vazquez and the whole state of New Mexico.
CONGRATULATIONS TO BERTHA VAZQUEZ NCSE is pleased to congratulate Bertha Vazquez on receiving the Evolution Education Award for 2017 from the National Association of Biology Teachers. Vazquez received the award at the NABT's recent conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The NABT award, sponsored by BEACON and BSCS, "recognizes innovative classroom teachers and their efforts to promote the accurate understanding of biological evolution with the larger community." A member of NCSE and a guest contributor to NCSE's blog (see, e.g., her "Sharing the Passion for Evolution Education"), Vazquez teaches at G. W. Carver Middle School in Miami. and directs the Richard Dawkins Foundation's Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science. For information about NABT's awards, visit: https://www.nabt.org/Awards-About For Vazquez's "Sharing the Passion for Evolution Education," visit: https://ncse.com/blog/2015/08/sharing-passion-evolution-education-0016580 And for the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science, visit: https://www.richarddawkins.net/ties/ VICTORY IN NEW MEXICO New Mexico is now officially the nineteenth state to have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards. On November 14, 2017, the New Mexico Register (containing the state's administrative rules) was updated to specify that the NGSS, along with six New-Mexico-specific additions, would be the New Mexico STEM-ready science standards. As NCSE previously reported, New Mexico was embroiled in controversy after the Public Education Department proposed the adoption of a set of standards modeled on the performance expectations of the NGSS, but revised to weaken their treatment of evolution, climate change, and the age of the earth. The proposal was generally unpopular, with scientific, educational, environmental, business, and faith groups across the state expressing their opposition. Ultimately, the Public Education Department capitulated, expressing its intention to adopt the NGSS in their entirety with the addition of the six New-Mexico-specific standards. With the publication of the new rules, that intention was fulfilled. In adopting the NGSS, New Mexico joins Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia. For the entry in the New Mexico Register, visit: http://164.64.110.239/nmregister/xxviii/xxviii21/6.29.10.htm And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in New Mexico, visit: https://ncse.com/news WHAT'S NEW AT NCSE'S BLOG? Have you been visiting NCSE's blog recently? If not, then you've missed: * Ann Reid describing NCSE's campaign for Giving Tuesday https://ncse.com/blog/2017/11/ncse-launches-giving-tuesday-campaign-0018647 For NCSE's blog, 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. 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 600 Oakland CA 94612-2922 510-601-7203 fax 510-788-7971 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Check out NCSE's blog: 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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