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On Apr 13, 2005, at 4:26 PM, Ted Ansbacher wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> *********************************************************************** 
> ******
>
> For all the good intentions of the written statements on science and
> evolution, they strike me as similar to some of our explanatory  
> exhibit labels. We
> struggle to make them correct and concise, yet in the end they have  
> meaning
> mainly for those who already know what they mean. The problem is that  
> we are
> reverting to teaching by telling, and many of us are in the science  
> center world
> because we thought there was a better approach--learning by doing,  
> developing
> understanding from one's own experience.
I agree inquiry based learning is almost always a better approach, much  
our first choice.
But does that mean teaching by telling is never valid?
How can we show through inquiry based learning that a whole field of  
scientific knowledge is valid when someone comes along to claim that it  
isn't?

> The difference between evolution and
> creation is in WHY we believe either one--the process that leads to  
> that
> knowledge.

   What is the process that leads to knowledge?  Isn't that the  
scientific process? The process of inquiring, postulating, testing  
ideas out?

>   As John Dewey said about 100 ago: <<Surely if there is any knowledge  
> which
> is of most worth it is knowledge of the ways by which anything is  
> entitled to
> be called knowledge instead of being mere opinion or guesswork or  
> dogma.
Ted, that's precisely why it's worth defending evolution.  It  has gone  
through "the ways by which anything is entitled to be called knowledge  
instead of being mere opinion or guesswork or dogma" - the scientific  
process.


> knowledge never can be learned by itself; it is not information, but a  
> mode
> of intelligent practice, an habitual disposition of mind.

> Only by taking a hand
> in the making of knowledge, by transferring guess and opinion into  
> belief
> authorized by inquiry, does one ever get a knowledge of the method of  
> knowing.
Dewey is fabulous.  That is a great statement.
> Because participation in the making of knowledge has been scant,  
> because
> reliance on the efficacy of acquaintance with certain kinds of facts  
> has been
> current, science has not accomplished in education what was predicted  
> for it.>> Or as
> Bill Schmitt said, more simply, in a recent post: <<Very few schools  
> are
> helping today's students really understand science through experiences  
> where they
> are personally actively involved in construction of powerful knowledge  
> through
> authentic interactions with nature.>> This is the area where I believe
> science centers can and should lead the way,

We are leading the way here.  Much to be proud of.
>  and in doing so make their best
> contribution to the evolution-creation controversy.
No.  Just like you can't learn the periodic table from inquiry on the  
museum floor, no one is going to understand the evolution -creation  
controversy without statements made about it.

> Many centers have worked on
> exhibits and programs with the process of science in mind, but it is  
> not easy, and
> there is still plenty to be done.
>
Amen.
But inquiry based exhibits are not all that science centers do.  We do  
need to cover issues.  We need to help in many ways, not just with  
inquiry based learning, the continuation of science passed from  
generation to generation.
> Ted Ansbacher
> Science Services
> 29 Byron Ave, White Plains, NY 10606
> Office: 914-328-5407     Cell: 914-484-8584
> [log in to unmask]     www.scienceservs.com
>
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More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
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