NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2018/06/08
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2018-06-08 17:00.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, NCSE is pleased to announce the recipients of the Friend of Darwin and the Friend of the Planet awards for 2018. The Orlando Sentinel finds that creationism is taught in publicly funded private schools in Florida. And NCSE bids a fond farewell to Emily Schoerning.
FRIEND OF DARWIN AND FRIEND OF THE PLANET AWARDS FOR 2018 NCSE is pleased to announce the winners of the Friend of Darwin award for 2018: Tiffany Adrain, the collections manager at the University of Iowa Paleontology Repository and a supporter of NCSE’s Science Booster Clubs in Iowa, and Robert Stephens, a cell and molecular biologist who proposed the idea of Darwin Day in 1993 and cofounded the Darwin Day Program to coordinate and encourage the celebrations of the great naturalist's life and work. "The continued vitality of Darwin Day celebrations across the country -- and around the world -- is in large part due to Bob Stephens's success in establishing the Darwin Day program," commented NCSE's executive director Ann Reid, "while it would be hard to overstate how generous Tiffany Adrain was, both with her time and with the specimens that she curates, to the then-fledgling Science Booster Clubs that NCSE piloted in eastern Iowa." NCSE is also pleased to announce the winners of the Friend of the Planet award for 2018: Climate Central, a group of scientists and journalists providing a reliable and accurate source of information about climate change, especially through its website and its book Global Weirdness (2013), and Kerry Emanuel, Professor of Atmospheric Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of What We Know About Climate Change (2007). "Kerry Emanuel is not only a pre-eminent climate scientist but also a highly skilled climate communicator," Reid explained. "As his colleague Ben Santer says, when Emanuel speaks about human effects on climate, people listen." She added, "Likewise, Climate Central's efforts to translate the complexities of scientific research on climate change into plain English for a general public have been both indefatigable and invaluable: a true model of science communication." The Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet awards are presented annually to a select few whose efforts to support NCSE and advance its goal of defending the teaching of evolution and climate science have been truly outstanding. Previous recipients of the Friend of Darwin award include Brian Alters, Brandon Haught, Ronald L. Numbers, and Judy Scotchmoor. Previous recipients of the Friend of the Planet Award include Michael E. Mann, Naomi Oreskes, and Skeptical Science. For information on the awards, visit: https://ncse.com/about/friend-of-darwin https://ncse.com/about/friend-of-planet CREATIONISM AT PUBLICLY FUNDED SCHOOLS IN FLORIDA "Some private schools in Florida that rely on public funding teach students that dinosaurs and humans lived together," reports the Orlando Sentinel (June 1, 2018). The newspaper surveyed "151 private schools newly approved by the education department to take scholarships for the 2017-18 school year. Seventy[-]five of the schools provided information about their curriculum either on their website or when contacted by phone, and 30 of those, or about 40 percent, reported Abeka, BJU [Bob Jones University Press] or ACE [Advanced Christian Education] was a part of their academic offerings." According to experts asked by the Sentinel to review the textbooks from these publishers, "[t]he most striking feature of the biology books is their focused argument against evolution, a fundamental building block of modern biology." Brandon Haught of Florida Citizens for Science said, of claims about dinosaurs in a workbook from ACE, "That was just plain-old, misguided, bad, horrible science, talking about dinosaurs and humans living together." Concerns about the textbooks used in private schools that receive public funding have surfaced elsewhere. Writing in the Huffington Post (December 7, 2017), Rebecca Klein reported on a study that found that "many of the non-Catholic Christian schools" participating in private school choice programs were using Abeka, BJU, or ACE textbooks, which "often flout widely accepted science and historical fact." Despite the public funding of these private schools, the Sentinel noted, "Florida law prohibits the department [of education] from asking about or regulating academics at these schools." For the story in the Orlando Sentinel, visit: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-voucher-school-curriculum-20180503-story.html For the story in the Huffington Post, visit: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/school-voucher-evangelical-education-betsy-devos_us_5a021962e4b04e96f0c6093c And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Florida, visit: https://ncse.com/news/florida FAREWELL TO EMILY SCHOERNING NCSE bids farewell to Emily Schoerning, who joined NCSE as its first Director of Community Organizing and Research in 2015. A microbiologist by training, Schoerning brought to NCSE a passion for science education and outreach that she found while a post-doctoral researcher. Particularly noteworthy was her development and supervision of NCSE's Science Booster Club program, aimed at rallying communities to support local science education. Initially piloted with a single club in Iowa City in 2015, the program now includes clubs in a dozen states, which have together reached almost 200,000 people at community events. As her title suggested, Schoerning was also involved in acquiring and analyzing data on the program's efficacy. The first article based on her research on the project's impact is forthcoming in the Journal of Science Communication. In 2017, she was elected as the Research Division Director of the National Science Teachers Association. All of us at NCSE wish her the best in her new endeavors. For information about NCSE's Science Booster Club program, visit: https://ncse.com/scienceboosterclubs https://ncse.com/blog-tags/science-booster-clubs WHAT'S NEW AT NCSE'S BLOG? Have you been visiting NCSE's blog recently? If not, then you've missed: * Glenn Branch discussing the 2018 Friends of Darwin recipients: https://ncse.com/blog/2018/06/friends-darwin-2018-robert-stephens-tiffany-adrain-0018758 * Ann Reid discussing the 2018 Friends of the Planet recipients: https://ncse.com/blog/2018/06/friends-planet-2018-kerry-emanuel-climate-central-0018757 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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