Measuring the Treatment of Evolution in Science Classes
08.13.09 by Daniel Gaddy
I recently wrote an Introduction to Evolution on this site outlining the basics of evolution and exploring the disconnect between the scientific community and the education system of the United States when it comes to the teaching of evolution. A new study by Louise Mead and Anton Mates, published in Evolution: Education and Outreach has performed a very thorough analysis of the teaching of evolution in science curricula, comparing each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The authors compare their results to results of a similar analysis in 2000, which was referenced in my previous article. Essentially, 9 states (California, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina) and the District of Columbia received grades of A, meaning the treatment of evolution in science classes was particularly good, while 5 states (Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia) received grades of F, meaning treatment of evolution was particularly poor. Kansas, in particular, is cited as a major success story. After several years of battling over standards for teaching evolution and intelligent design, Kansas “standards have improved immensely.”
While several states, including Kansas and Florida, improved their standards, several states, including Hawaii and Texas, actually regressed, often by the incorporation of creationist jargon. Overall conclusions from the study suggest that standards of teaching science in the United States public school system include more about evolution than in 2000. The authors also offer some advice on how to address science education standards in your state:
Introduction to Evolution
04.17.09 by Daniel Gaddy
February 12th, 2009 was Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. That weekend, I had dinner with some friends, most of whom are scientists. I mentioned Darwin’s birthday and, being scientists, we raised our glasses and toasted Darwin. However, one of the ladies at the table, who is not a scientist, objected and said that evolution is just a theory and she doesn’t believe it. She was the only person at the table to hold this opinion, and much of the night was spent trying to convince her otherwise. Her primary stumbling block was her belief that evolution is an entirely random process, and she did not believe that ever-increasing complexity could arise by chance. There are a variety of things wrong with her idea of evolution, and what I quickly realized is that she simply did not understand evolution. Worse yet, I quickly learned that a table full of scientists could not do a sufficient job of explaining it to her! This led me to ask myself a couple of questions. First of all, how many people out there accept evolution without fully understanding it? Secondly, how many people do not believe in evolution because they simply do not understand it? Therefore, I decided to write this blog post as a simple introduction to evolution. Universities offer entire courses focused on explaining evolution. This post is not meant to substitute for a 4-month college class. Instead, I simply aim to address the basics of evolution and some of the common misconceptions.
In 1859, 150 years ago, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, one of the most important and influential books ever written. In it, Darwin introduced his theory of evolution, which itself evolved over the course of Darwin’s 5 year journey around the world on the HMS Beagle, and in the subsequent years studying his notes from the journey. At its core, Darwin’s theory established a scientific explanation for diversity in nature. A minimal working definition of evolution is “a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations.”
| Posted in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences | Comments Off