Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
Why teach evolution? This is a wonderful question to ask about any topic in science. The curriculum has always been crowded, so it is vital that science classes focus on important subjects of interest and importance, always pruning and adding to the syllabus.
As other writers in this series point…
“What does evolution have to do with anatomy?” This was a regular question from the students in my introductory anatomy classes. We used a textbook by Kenneth Saladin, which is one of the very few that provides any evolutionary context at all for human anatomy and physiology. Saladin’s book lists “…
The first thought that popped into my head when starting to answer the question “Why teach evolution?” was how would you teach biology without teaching evolution? Or any life science for that matter? I began to consider this possibility further and examined my own yearly lesson plans from when I…
Rhode Island's House Resolution 7471 would, if approved, express the support of the House of Representatives for increased environmental and climate education in the state's public schools — and the NCSE/Penn State study of climate change education is cited as evidence of the need for the increase…
Connecticut's governor Ned Lamont declared February 12, 2020, Charles Darwin Day in the state of Connecticut, citing the need to protect "the advancement of science and courageous free inquiry," including "the study of the impacts of climate change." Darwin was described as developing "the…
The Idaho House Education Committee voted 10-5 on February 5, 2020, to repeal the state's science education standards, according to Idaho Ed News (February 5, 2020), despite the fact that the majority of public testimony heard by the committee favored retaining the standards.
Although the specific…
The theologian John C. Whitcomb Jr. died on February 4, 2020, at the age of 95, according to the young-earth creationist ministry Answers in Genesis (February 5, 2020). Whitcomb was the coauthor, with Henry M. Morris, of The Genesis Flood (1961), which popularized "flood geology" — the…
As a physicist, I have not concerned myself professionally with the details of biological evolution. Nevertheless, it is significant to the physicist (or any scientist) because of the way it fits perfectly with the evolution that takes place in every aspect of nature—from the Big Bang and cosmic…
Dating back over a hundred years, the struggle to understand and teach evolution was among the first fights in the modern scientific era. Teaching evolution reinforces the value of objective information, regardless of whether or not it's consistent with fundamentalist beliefs.