NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2018/03/09
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2018-03-09 17:47.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, NCSE's annual report for 2017. And in Connecticut, a legislative proposal to require the teaching of climate change.
NCSE's ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2017 NCSE's annual report for 2017 is now available on NCSE's website. The report briefly reviews recent challenges to the integrity of science education, discusses the national expansion of the Science Booster Club and the new initiatives planned by the NCSEteach program, and ends with a financial report -- especially useful for those considering donating to NCSE! -- and acknowledgment of NCSE's generous supporters. As NCSE's executive director writes in her introductory letter to the report, "Science teachers help their students wrestle with critically important questions: What counts as evidence? What is fake and what is real? As we struggle as a society with the implications of unlimited access to information of uncertain provenance and unequal accuracy, the kind of critical thinking that a good science education provides has never been more important." For NCSE's annual report for 2017 (PDF), visit: https://ncse.com/files/2017AnnualReport.pdf A NOVELTY IN CONNECTICUT Connecticut's Senate Bill 345 would, if enacted, require the teaching of climate change "consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards" in the state's public schools, and would also task the state department of energy and environmental protection with helping local and regional school districts develop appropriate curricula to do so. If the bill is enacted, Connecticut would apparently become the first state to require the teaching of climate change in the public schools by law. (Many states already require the teaching of climate change in effect, through its inclusion in their state science standards, but not as a matter of statutory law.) Connecticut adopted the NGSS, where global climate change is presented as one of four sub-ideas in the core idea of Earth and Human Activity in the earth and space sciences at both the middle school and the high school level, in 2015, so presumably the bill is aimed at helping to bolster climate change's presence in Connecticut science classrooms. Senate Bill 345 is a "raised" bill, meaning that it was introduced by a committee rather than by any individual legislators. It was introduced by the Joint Committee on Environment -- in Connecticut, all legislative committees contain members of both chambers of the legislature -- where it is currently awaiting a hearing. For information about Connecticut's Senate Bill 345 from the legislature, visit: https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=SB00345&which_year=2018 And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Connecticut, visit: https://ncse.com/news/connecticut WHAT'S NEW AT NCSE'S BLOG? Have you been visiting NCSE's blog recently? If not, then you've missed: * Ann Reid explaining why NCSE monitors even the zaniest bills aimed at undermining science education: https://ncse.com/blog/2018/03/why-ncse-watches-legislation-0018718 For NCSE's blog, visit: https://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 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
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