![](http://ncse.com/files/images/Cover--Missing link.thumbnail.jpg)
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Lee Meadows's The Missing Link: An Inquiry Approach for Teaching All Students About Evolution (Heinemann, 2009). The excerpt, from a chapter entitled "Deepening Students' Understanding and Addressing Objections," offers ideas about how K-12 teachers can create lessons to address student misconceptions about various aspects of evolution. Meadows urges, "Again and again, say to the students, 'I'm not asking you to accept some specific aspect of evolution, but I do want you to understand the evidence for evolution and how scientists explain the evidence.' By blatantly stating your expectation about understanding, but not necessarily accepting, you're reiterating to your students that you affirm their beliefs, but you're also helping them build the scientific understanding that they'll need for life in public society. Constantly reminding students of your approach is especially critical as you focus on the objections that many of them raise." Recommending the book, NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott wrote, "Especially for those teachers who are apprehensive about teaching evolution, Meadows provides not only encouragement, but a clear how-to that will guide them and their more experienced colleagues towards teaching with integrity the 'controversial subject' of evolution."