ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

The Museum of Earth has published their docent 
guide-"Evolution and Creationism" (as a pdf)- as 
a guide to dealing with visitors who challenge 
evolution theory at their institution: 
http://www.priweb.org/

Martin

>
>
>Museums answer evolution challenges
>
>
>Staff members handle doubts of creationists
>
>By Cornelia Dean
>The New York Times
>Posted October 9 2005
>
>
>       ITHACA, N.Y. · Lenore Durkee, a retired biology professor, was
>volunteering as a docent at the Museum of the Earth when a group of seven or
>eight creationists confronted her, eager to challenge exhibits on evolution.
>
>       They peppered Durkee with questions about topics including techniques
>for dating fossils and the second law of thermodynamics, their queries
>coming so thick and fast that she found it hard to reply.
>
>
>After about 45 minutes, "I told them I needed to take a break," she
>recalled. "My mouth was dry."
>
>That encounter and others like it gave impetus for a training session at the
>museum in August. Durkee and scores of other volunteers and staff members
>crowded into a meeting room to hear advice from the museum director, Warren
>D. Allmon, on ways to deal with visitors who reject settled precepts of
>science on religious grounds.
>
>Similar efforts are under way or planned throughout the United States as
>science museums and other institutions struggle to contend with challenges
>to the theory of evolution that they say are growing common and sometimes
>aggressive.
>
>One company, called B.C. Tours "because we are biblically correct," even
>offers escorted visits to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature.
>Participants hear creationists' explanations for the exhibitions.
>
>Officials like Judy Diamond, curator of public programs at the University of
>Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln, are trying to meet such challenges
>head-on.
>
>Diamond is working on evolution exhibitions financed by the National Science
>Foundation that will go on long-term display at six museums of natural
>history. The program includes training for docents and staff members.
>
>"The goal is to understand the controversies, so that people are better able
>to handle them as they come up," she said. "Museums, as a field, have
>recognized we need to take a more proactive role in evolution education."
>
>Allmon, who directs the Paleontological Research Institution, an affiliate
>of Cornell University, began the training session here in September with
>statistics from Gallup Polls: 54 percent of Americans do not believe that
>human beings evolved from earlier species, and although almost half believe
>that Darwin has been proved right, slightly more disagree.
>
>"Just telling them they are wrong is not going to be effective," he said.
>
>Instead, he told the volunteers that when they encounter religious
>fundamentalists, they should emphasize that science museums live by the
>rules of science. They seek answers in nature to questions about nature.
>They look for explanations that can be tested by experiment and observation
>in the material world. And, they understand that all scientific knowledge is
>provisional -- capable of being overturned when better answers are
>discovered.
>
>"Is it against all religion?" he asked. "No. But it is against some
>religions."
>
>Allmon says that even trained scientists like Durkee can benefit from
>explicit advice about dealing with religious challenges to science
>exhibitions.
>
>"There is an art, a script that is very, very helpful," he said.
>
>A pamphlet handed out at the training session provides information on the
>scientific method, the theory of evolution and other basic information. It
>offers suggestions on replying to frequently raised challenges like, "Is
>there lots of evidence against evolution?" (The answer begins, simply,
>"No.")
>
>When talking to visitors about evolution, the pamphlet advises, "don't avoid
>using the word." Rehearse answers to frequently asked questions, because
>"you'll be more comfortable when you sound like you know what you're talking
>about."
>
>Allmon told his audience to "be firm and clear, not defensive." The pamphlet
>says that if all else fails and docents find themselves in an unpleasant
>confrontation, they can excuse themselves by saying, "I have to go to the
>restroom."
>
>Eugenie C. Scott, who directs the National Center for Science Education and
>is conducting training sessions for Diamond's program, said that within the
>past year or so efforts to train museum personnel and volunteers on
>evolution and related topics had substantially increased. "This seems to be
>a cottage industry now," Scott said.
>
>At the Denver science museum, the staffers and docents often encounter
>groups from B.C. Tours, which for 15 years has offered tours of the museum
>based on literal readings of the Bible. The group embraces young-Earth
>creationism, the view that Earth and its plants, animals and people were
>created in a matter of days only a few thousand years ago.
>
>"We present both sides from an objective perspective and let the students
>decide for themselves," said Rusty Carter, an operator of the group.
>
>Carter praised the museum, saying it had been "very professional and
>accommodating, even though they do not support us." A typical group might
>have 30 or 40 people, he added.
>
>Kirk Johnson, a paleontologist and the chief curator at the museum, was
>philosophical about the group. "It's interesting to walk along with them,"
>he said.
>
>Participants pay the admission fee and have as much right as anyone to be in
>the museum, Johnson said, but sometimes "we have to restrain our docents
>from interacting with them."
>
>Scott, who trained as a physical anthropologist, said that in training
>docents she emphasized "how the public understands or misunderstands
>evolution and some of the misconceptions they come in with." She hopes to
>combat the idea that people must choose between science and faith -- "that
>you are either a good Christian creationist or an evil atheist
>evolutionist."
>
>"It's your job," she told docents, "not to slam the door in the face of a
>believer."
>
>Sarah Fiorello, an environmental educator at the Finger Lakes State Parks
>Region who participated in the Ithaca training session in August, said she
>was now prepared to take the same approach. When she describes the region's
>geological history on tours of its gorges, visitors often object -- as even
>a member of her family once did -- that "it does not say that in the Bible."
>
>Now, she said, she will tell them, "The landscape tells a story based on
>geological events, based on science."
>
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-- 
Martin Weiss, PhD
Vice President, Science
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111 th Street
Corona, New York 11368
phone	718 699 0005 x 356
facsimile	718 699 1341

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More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
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