ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Stephen,
The National Center for Science Education (ncseweb.org) has already taken
the initiative on some of your suggestions. Their "Voices for Evolution"
contains support statements from science organizations across the world and
they have worked with a number of educational institutions to help develop
science standards, textbooks, and so on. Lawrence Lerner wrote an excellent
booklet on this for the Ford Foundation, which you can find online through a
google search.
I don't think science organizations should get together to develop a
curricular model for world religions though. I think this is a waste of our
precious time, for one thing, and it could be construed by society as an
abuse of our role as science educators - not to mention somewhat arrogant
and irrelevant.
What the creationists are doing, largely through their new guise as
Intelligent Design 'theorists' is either a) trying to show that their ideas
fit the scientific model and/or b) trying to show that evolution, through
natural selection does not. Their methods begin on a grassroots level,
working up through parents, teachers and then boards of education. They have
managed to get a lot of people on their side largely through political
tactics and a serious manipulation of language and understanding. Their
gravest "crime," in my opinion, is in spreading misinformation and confusion
and it is perhaps this area that concerned citizens and science educators
can help most.
Amanda Chesworth
CSCIOP, Educational Director
www.inquiringminds.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Uzzo" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: FW: Ecology, EE and the classroom "creationism wars"
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
>
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*
>
> I'd like to put forth a perhaps outlandish idea for discussion.
>
> First of all, maybe I'm missing something in this arguement, but last
> time I looked, absurd notions of "intelligent design" were patently
> rejected by the scientific community. I suspect that we need public
> schools to teach science, not mythology. If they're teaching
> creationism, they are teaching mythology. n'est pas?
>
> Conversely, Creationists have every right to object to the absence of
> religion in schools. they are correct that science has created a void in
> the belief system of some people, which perhaps science should help (or
> at least provide direction) to fill. But their motives and goals are
> misguided. The detractors of the science of evolution are not focusing
> on what is really needed in public schools in terms of religion, which
> is to include a strand on world religions in the social studies
> curriculum. Since mainstream religions have such a tremendous influence
> on world politics, war, and social justice issues it is utterly
> irresponsible that kids graduate from high school and have no idea the
> differences and similarities between Islam and Christianity, never mind
> Presbyterianism and Catholicism. Religion is barely mentioned in the
> social studies standards. This is a huge disservice to our youth and
> feeds the machinery of intolerance, violence, and war.
>
> So here's my evil plot: to fill the "gap" (give equal time, or whatever
> they want to call it) between creationism and evolution, perhaps a
> coalition of science orgainzations and social studies organizations
> should put together an initiative to include a thoughtful and balanced
> strand on world religions (this means all religions their history and
> political and social contexts) which can be integrated into public
> school curricula. Then, separatetly, a genuinely scientific and up to
> date (beyond Darwin, include punctual equilibrium, etc.) approach to
> teaching evolution. I bet there is grant money out there for developing
> something like this.
>
> Along with this, all self-respecting science organizations (ASTC,
> included) should make a consistent, strong, united stand on the issue,
> so no one is unsure where these organizations stand. By soft-pedaling or
> avoiding the issue we are tacitly compliant with the purveyors of
> Creationism. Perhaps we should all have an official statement on hand in
> case anyone working in a science center or association, or attending one
> is unsure. Am I a heretic?
>
> To all those who think this is off-topic, I respond well to slings and
> arrows!
>
> --
> Stephen Miles Uzzo
> New York Hall of Science
> Project Manager for Technology
> 47-01 111th Street
> Flushing Meadows Corona Park
> New York 11368 U.S.A.
> v. +1.718.699.0005 x377
> f. +1.718.699.1341
> http://www.nyscience.org
>
> "freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day
anew."
> - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
>
>
>
>
> Fisher, Martin wrote:
>
> > ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers
> > Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
> >
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*
> >
> > This email came to me from an environmental education group (The
National Environmental Education and Training Foundation,
http://www.neetf.org/ ), but it is certainly applicable and important to
those of us in ASTC and the science center field.
> >
> >
> > Martin S. Fisher
> > Director of Education
> > Nauticus, the National Maritime Center
> > One Waterside Drive
> > Norfolk, VA 23510
> > 36°50'51"N 76°17'53"W 13 ft.
> > phone: (757) 664-1003, (800) 664-1080 ext. 41003
> > fax: (757) 623-1287 cell (757) 617-7080
> > [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
www.nauticus.org <http://www.nauticus.org>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Kevin Coyle [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 9:28 PM
> > To: Kevin Coyle
> > Subject: Ecology, EE and the classroom "creationism wars"
> >
> >
> >
> > To our colleagues:
> >
> > Since January 1, 2004 at least four more state public education
programs - Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma -- have become further
embroiled in the debate of why evolution is taught as actual science and the
concept of "intelligent design" or creationism is not. The April/May
edition of NSTA Reports has a feature article on recent developments in this
move to give equal time to creationism.
> >
> > Public treatments of this issue range from attempts at the deletion of
references to evolution in state science standards (GA) to state bills
providing for the immediate termination of an educator who willfully
neglects to teach "intelligent design" as a scientific principle (MO). The
Oklahoma House passed a "disclaimer" law, 96-0, which frames evolution as
follows:" "No one was present when life first appeared on Earth. Therefore,
any statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not
fact."
> >
> > This movement has, in some fashion, now affected a majority of states in
the nation and ultimately positions ecological and environmental education
as secular and perhaps even anti-religious. This has particular
implications for the official public standing of nature, ecology and
biodiversity education -- texts, lesson plans, field trips, curricula,
professional development andmore. Many of our colleagues in the
environmental and conservation field may want to know more about this
ongoing movement. See, for example: http://www.natcenscied.org/ or
www.nsta.org
> >
> > Best, Kevin Coyle
> > www.neetf.org
> >
> > ***********************************************************************
> > 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
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
>
> ***********************************************************************
> 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
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More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
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To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
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