NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2018/03/02
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2018-03-02 19:14.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, NCSE is seeking a Director of Communications in the wake of Robert Luhn's departure. The New York Times relies on NCSE to answer a question about climate education. Nature looks at the legislation in Florida. And there's encouraging news from Idaho.
HELP WANTED: DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS NCSE is seeking to hire a Director of Communications. The full-time position involves providing the strategic vision for NCSE's external communications and enhancing the organization's effectiveness by promoting its work to diverse audiences, including members, the media, education and scientific communities, local communities, and the general public. The Director will be responsible for strategic direction, online communications, media relations, and print communications. Further information about duties, qualifications, benefits, and the application process is available from NCSE's job page. For NCSE's job page, visit: https://ncse.com/about/jobs FAREWELL TO ROBERT LUHN NCSE bids farewell to Robert Luhn, who joined NCSE as its first Director of Communication in 2008. Bringing his decades of expertise as a technology and environmental journalist to the job, Luhn was instrumental in raising NCSE's profile among traditional and new media and in connecting journalists with NCSE staff. He also oversaw NCSE's expansion to social media platforms, starting NCSE's Facebook page and Twitter feed, and converting vast amounts of video for posting on NCSE's YouTube channel. Much of his work was behind the scenes, and only occasionally was his wry sense of humor on public display, as in NCSE's "Don't Diss Darwin" video -- produced in reaction to a creationist campaign in 2009 to give away a misleadingly edited version of On the Origin of Species -- which he wrote, produced, and starred in. All of us at NCSE wish him the best in his new endeavors. For the "Don't Diss Darwin" video, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXwZM81XDUA NCSE IN CLIMATE FWD: NCSE was featured in Climate Fwd: -- The New York Times's e-newsletter "with stories and insights about climate change" -- for February 21, 2018: "climate change is presented as a controversial subject in a significant number of American classrooms, according to research from the National Center for Science Education." Responding to a reader question's "How are American schools addressing climate change?" the e-newsletter relied on the 2016 NCSE/Penn State survey that surveyed 1500 public middle and high school science teachers. NCSE's Glenn Branch commented, "They're teaching about climate change ... but a substantial portion of them are saying it's a hoax." Discussing the importance of climate change to state science standards, Branch explained, "the districts that do get affected are going to be the smaller, more rural[,] and more conservative ones, where the teachers are going to take the pulse of their community and realize, 'I'm going to get blowback if I teach about climate change.'" For the article in Climate Fwd:, visit: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/climate/olympics-environment.html And for NCSE's report of the survey (PDF), visit: https://ncse.com/files/MixedMessages.pdf NATURE COVERS FLORIDA Florida's House Bill 827 and Senate Bill 1644 -- similar bills that would make it easier for creationists and climate change deniers to smuggle instructional materials they favor into public school classrooms -- were front and center in a recent report (February 23, 2018) in the journal Nature on legislation targeting the integrity of science education. "They would make it easier for creationists, climate-change deniers and -- who knows -- flat-Earthers to pester their local school boards about their hobbyhorse," NCSE's deputy director Glenn Branch was quoted as saying. He noted that key terms in the bills such as "balanced" and "noninflammatory" are not defined. Also mentioned were Florida's House Bill 825 and Senate Bill 966, which would, if enacted, require "[c]ontroversial theories and concepts ... [to] be taught in a factual, objective, and balanced manner," while allowing local school districts to use either the state science standards or alternatives "equivalent to or more rigorous than" them. Here, too, Branch was wary of key but undefined terms in the bills, noting that "we're not told how to measure rigour" (in comparing alternative standards to the state science standards), and asking, "When we teach that the Earth is round, are we imbalanced if we don't teach that the Earth is flat?" Both HB 827 and SB 1644 were passed by the education committees of their respective houses in February 2018; HB 827 is apparently scheduled for a second reading on the House's calendar, while SB 1644 is in the Senate Rules Committee. Neither HB 825 nor SB 966 has yet received a hearing in committee. For the report in Nature, visit: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02434-y And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Florida, visit: https://ncse.com/news/florida VICTORY IN IDAHO? "After three years of resistance at the GOP-dominated Idaho Statehouse, including more pushback from House Republicans this session, the Senate Education Committee voted 6-3 on Thursday to approve revised school science standards as-is -- with no parts relating to climate change deleted," reports the Idaho Statesman (February 22, 2018). As NCSE previously reported, on February 7, 2018, the House Education Committee -- which in 2017 removed passages referring to climate change and human impact on the environment from the then proposed standards -- deleted a standard referring to climate change as well as all of the "supporting content" material throughout the standards. According to the Idaho Statesman, "the Senate panel’s decision on Thursday nullified the House's move because the science standards were submitted to lawmakers as a proposed administrative rule and not a bill. Therefore changes could be enacted only if the panels in both chambers agreed to them." For the story in the Idaho Statesman, visit: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article201700869.html And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Idaho, visit: https://ncse.com/news/idaho 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 https://ncse.com Check out NCSE's blog: https://ncse.com/blog Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: https://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse https://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd https://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! https://ncse.com/join
» 3934 reads
