Writing on Bleeding Heartland (February 14, 2025), NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch urged Iowa to retain "the scientifically accurate and pedagogically appropriate language about evolution and climate change" in its current state science standards.
In a proposed revision to the standards, as NCSE previously reported, the word "evolution" was scrubbed, although not completely, from the standards, and a reference to the 4.6-billion-year age of the earth was removed. Similarly, "climate change" became "climate trends," while references to impacts of human activity on the environment became references to impacts on the environment.
"Part of science education is learning the terminology scientists use," Branch explained. "Scientists, including faculty at Iowa's colleges and universities, don't talk about 'biological change over time' or 'climate trends' when they talk about evolution or climate change. That's why Iowa's current state science standards ... use the terms 'evolution' and 'climate change' straightforwardly and forthrightly."
The changes were proposed not by the committee of 37 Iowa educators and scientists charged with revising the standards but apparently by the state department of education. Branch remarked, "[I]f the department’s decision to scrub 'evolution' and 'climate change' from the draft standards was based on any relevant scholarly expertise or classroom experience, surely Iowans would have been told by now."
The standards are currently with a committee responsible for revising the draft standards in light of public comments; the final draft will be presented to the state board of education, perhaps as early as March 20, 2025, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette (January 28, 2025).
