Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
NCSE recently learned that there was a new evolution game on the map: Go eXtinct! Of course we wanted to give it a whirl. But would playing it in the office, with a team of evolution experts, be the best way to review the game? Maybe not. We thought it might be fun to try it on people with less…
According (PDF) to the latest Monmouth University Poll, "a large majority of Americans acknowledge climate change is happening, although they are divided on whether human activity is mostly responsible for it." Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute Director Tony MacDonald commented, "The data…
Having lived in Boston most of my life, I am used to weird weather. Seventy degrees in the middle of January? I’ve experienced that. Soul-crushing 6-foot piles of snow? Been there. Two full months of non-stop rain? My regularly-flooded basement could tell you stories. So when the weather turned…
A young person of my acquaintance, reading Scott Westerfeld’s young-adult novel Peeps (2005)—which has a disturbing amount of scientific information about parasitism in it— drew my attention to the following passage: “Evolution is mostly about mutations that don’t work, sort…
Most New Year’s resolutions fail. We know that only about 1 in 8 people stick by their resolutions, we know why, and we know there are some tricks that can help you succeed. But still, most people fail. That said, the great John Cleese offers this resolution, one we should all make. I would…
On the first day of every school year, I ask my students to draw a scientist. After questioning looks and a round of giggles, the majority of them draw the well-known ‘Einstein’ figure, an older white male with crazy hair and eyeglasses.This figure will inevitably be drawn next to a table of…
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of the classic Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, second edition (Greenwood Press/University of California Press, 2009), by NCSE's founding executive director Eugenie C. Scott. The preview consists of chapter 3, "Beliefs: Religion,…
In November, I attended WGBH’s forum on digital media in STEM learning. The topic: climate education. NCSE’s friends from the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) were there in force, as were representatives from NOAA Education, NASA, PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, and Young Voices for the…
What are the challenges to creating a resilient and confident educational community capable of addressing natural hazards and climate change in a scientifically accurate and pedagogically appropriate manner? That was the question that NCSE’s Minda Berbeco and Mark McCaffrey addressed in their "…