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Florida Citizens for Science |
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — House lawmakers scuttled a bill that would have required public school students to be told that evolution is not empirically proven — the latest setback for critics of evolution.
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“I don’t believe that anybody in there really wants their kids to be taught that their great-grandfather was an ape,” Buttars said.
Absolutely right, Buttars. Too bad for you that nobody is actually even considering teaching such a thing. And you’re an elected representative of the people? Don’t you think it would be nice to have at least a basic understanding of the subject matter you’re so passionate about?
I like the list of failures presented in this story:
The vote represents the latest loss for critics of evolution. In December, a federal judge barred the school system in Dover, Pa., from teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in high school biology classes.
Also last year, a federal judge ordered the school system in suburban Atlanta’s Cobb County to remove from biology textbooks stickers that called evolution a theory, not a fact.
Earlier this year, a rural California school district canceled an elective philosophy course on intelligent design and agreed never to promote the topic in class again.
And then there’s Kansas:
But critics of evolution got a boost in Kansas in November when the state Board of Education adopted new science teaching standards that treat evolution as a flawed theory, defying the view of science groups.
Let’s not let them score a win here in Florida, okay folks?!
LAKELAND — The Foxen brothers may be the best scientific family duo since Pierre and Marie Curie.
Like the Curies, Forrest and Kelly Foxen are studying radioactive material. The difference is they are still in their teens.
Last fall, each boy received a student science award from the Health Physics Society along with $300 for their ongoing projects. Only three of the awards were given out nationwide.
“What was unique about this is that every state that has a (Health Physics Society) chapter nominated two scientists,” said Sean Foxen, Forrest’s and Kelly’s father. “The state of Florida nominated two that just happened to be brothers.”
This kind of amazing work from young teens is always encouraging to see. I wish the article went a bit more in depth as to how these brothers got to be so involved in their projects. I mean, studying something on your own for two years is a real accomplishment for any young man that age. Where did that drive come from? I need to find some for my two kids 
While reading a story about science curriculum changes and the ongoing spat between the local school board and their school superintendent, I found this tidbit:
Cowin ramping up science courses
Cowin said that the thrust for implementing the new curriculum further came from having to replace science textbooks in the coming year. Making the changes now would allow the texts to coincide with the new courses, she said.
This the county where I live. So I’m glad I stumbled across it. I’ll be paying more attention to any notices of the textbook selection process here locally.
Do you know what’s happening in your area?
Here’s another article about the textbook selection:
Broward high school teachers chose the first-year biology text they’ll be using until 2013 — and it’s not the one that raised eyebrows with a mention of intelligent design.
Starting next year, high school students will use Florida Holt Biology, a text that doesn’t include the controversial intelligent design concept, which theorizes life could not have come about without help from a higher power.
I know some people were interested in how the process narrowed down the search to the final two books. Here’s a little about it:
Members of a district science textbook adoption committee had winnowed a field of six biology books to two finalists, the Glencoe and Florida Holt Biology, which is published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
High school science teachers certified in biology across the district examined both texts and overwhelmingly chose the Holt. The text is expected to be approved by the Broward School Board at an upcoming meeting.
So, I guess one question to ask is who was on this textbook adoption committee.
When reading this, make sure you keep in mind that apparently Florida caught a disease that was going around Texas first.
– Texas Citizens for Science in 2003
– Texas stories in 2003
– Discovery Institute said problems still remained in 2003
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Broward selects biology text with watered-down passages on evolution:
High school biology students in Broward County will use a textbook next year that watered-down passages about Charles Darwin and evolution theory.
Science teachers picked Florida Holt Biology this month in a countywide vote, favoring it over another book that discussed the controversial idea of intelligent design.
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A review by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that on one edited page, Holt agreed to give Darwin less credit for shaping modern biology. In another section it inserted descriptions that conservative Christians believe challenge evolution theory.
Previous editions of the textbook said Darwin’s theory “is the essence of biology.”
In the Broward edition, students will read instead that Darwin’s theory “provides a consistent explanation for life’s diversity.”
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But the issue has crossed into the district, because publishers like Holt have changed textbooks over the years while under pressure from such groups as the Discovery Institute.
The institute has received national attention for challenging evolution in courts and school boards.
In a 1999 fund-raising document, institute leaders stated their goal was to debunk the philosophies of Darwin, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud who “portrayed humans not as moral and spiritual beings, but as animals or machines.”
The group has made a point of attacking “gaps” in Darwin’s theory, lobbying textbook companies to give equal time to experiments that suggest species don’t change over time as he predicted.
It focused on Holt’s biology book in 2003 when the publisher tried to get it approved for Texas schools. The publisher agreed to make numerous changes, which in some cases were simple clarifications about historical experiments.
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The Texas edits now have wound up in Holt textbooks for other states, including Florida.
Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit agency that has monitored the Texas textbook adoption process for a decade, said Holt kowtowed to conservatives with its Florida biology book.
“But it could have been much worse,” Quinn said. “These are minor changes, but I think students are really going to waste their time looking for alternative hypotheses to evolution. There are none.”
If anyone has the ability to grab hold of the selected book and maybe scan in some of the talked-about pages, I would love to post them. Red State Rabble wants some scans too.
They won the election. They won the court case. They won $1 each to symbolize that their former school board violated their Constitutional rights.
Now parents who sued the Dover Area School District said they want an apology from former board members who spurred the federal lawsuit by voting to include intelligent design in science classes.But it’s not likely they will ever get it.
The former board members have said no apology is in order.
“An apology for what?” said former board member Sheila Harkins. “I don’t understand.”
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Former Dover board members
Of the nine Dover Area School Board members in Oct. 2004, six voted to include intelligent design in ninth-grade biology classes. Only one remains on the board.Where are they now?
— Alan Bonsell: Voted for intelligent design; voted out of office.
— Casey Brown: Voted against intelligent design and resigned the night her colleagues on the board approved it.
— Jeff Brown: Voted against intelligent design and resigned the night his colleagues approved it. Warned the board it would be sued.
— William Buckingham: Voted for intelligent design. Resigned and moved to North Carolina.
— Jane Cleaver: Voted for intelligent design shortly before she resigned and moved to Florida. [emphasis mine, Brandon]
— Heather Geesey: Voted for intelligent design, is the only remaining member of the former school board.
— Sheila Harkins: Voted for intelligent design, voted out of office.
— Noel Wenrich: Voted against intelligent design; resigned and moved out of the school district.
— Angie Yingling: Voted for intelligent design, then resigned and said she regretted her vote.
Talks Planned on Science, Religion
LAKELAND — The recent nationwide debates about the relationship between science and religion have not bypassed Polk County.
In the past year, there have been at least four events at local churches and colleges that explored the controversies and agreements between the two fields.
That trend continues this week as Southeastern University and Florida Southern College each hosts a lecture that ventures into some of the outer frontiers of science and religion.
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Although a professor of political science, Collins, a Catholic layman, has long been interested in the theology of Thomas Aquinas, said Willis, who is also Collins’ cousin. In his lecture, Collins will compare some of the claims of the modern intelligent design movement — which looks for scientific evidence that biological life has a divine designer — with Aquinas’ ideas about design.
“Some evolutionary theorists say that similar environments produce similar traits in unrelated species, so what appears to be intricate design is really just what you would expect. It seems to contradict claims of . . . intelligent design. Collins talks about how this might fit with a more profound understanding of design as proposed by Thomas,” Willis said.
DeLand park to teach children about nature
About three years after the school district closed Bicentennial Youth Park in DeLand to save money, it has reopened it as part of an optimistic new program combining environmental studies with community service that is, according to local officials, the first of its kind in the nation.
Volusia County school officials announced recently that the 260-acre park it leases from the state is now one of three environmental learning centers. Local students will explore the youth park and two other nature preserves to study wildlife, learn to protect ecosystems and work on related projects such as building birdhouses and helping experts collect research data.
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The kids are thrilled about studying outdoors. Ninth-grader Octavia Hamilton said she has learned to identify birds such as the egret and turkey vulture and can now recognize the call of a catbird.
“I think it’s cool,” she said. “I can run home and tell my mom about it.”
Another student, Cole Johnson, a sophomore, was amazed at what he saw as he peered through a microscope at a sample of pond water.
“You get to see all the things living in the water,” he said. “They’re just running around, eating each other.”
Teachers study for evolution challenges
ST. LOUIS - Hundreds of teachers from across the nation gathered here Sunday to arm themselves with information that will help them in future conflicts over the teaching of evolution in science classes.
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… the sessions were aimed at preparing teachers to deal with new challenges to evolutionary theory — this time aimed at casting doubt on the theory’s foundations rather than trying to establish an alternative theory. “It’s going on right now,” Eugenie Scott, executive director for the National Center for Science Education, told MSNBC.com.
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Scott, who has been a vocal opponent of the intelligent-design movement, said that in the months ahead she expected religious-inspired challenges not only to evolutionary theory but also to theories in astronomy, biology, geology and the historical sciences that went against the view that the cosmos was created mere thousands or tens of thousands of years ago.
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The teachers also cast votes in an electronic instant poll to voice their own top concerns from a list of 10. Their four top concerns were:
>> “No one has explained how teachers can best answer parents, students or others who ask, ‘Why not teach the controversy?’”
>> “It is difficult to frame evolution instruction in a way that leaves students’ minds open — yet also does not sound to them like equivocation.”
>> “Students or their parents object to evolution-related instruction, and the controversy consumes valuable class time.”
>> “Feeling confident about teaching evolution can be difficult because professional development opportunities — or even simple answers to basic questions about evolution and the nature of science — are not readily available to help teachers freshen their content knowledge.”
Seeds of research start small, and in unexpected places.
In the case of Hengli Tang, a biology professor at Florida State University, they begin with a boy in the Anhui province of China near Shanghai. Tang’s high-school biology teacher tells him biology will be the science of the 21st century.
Like boys everywhere, he has an action fantasy: “My childhood dream was to drive a Jeep across the Sahara.” He decides becoming a zoologist or biologist may get him there.
Today, Tang, 36, is still the dreamer, driven to discover a cure or treatment for the hepatitis C virus. He has done groundbreaking research, published in the Feb. 8 Journal of Virology, on how to reproduce the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in vitro and track its growth, thereby removing barriers to probing the disease.
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