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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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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. The difference between evolution and 
creation is in WHY we believe either one--the process that leads to that 
knowledge.  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. Such 
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. 
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, and in doing so make their best 
contribution to the evolution-creation controversy. 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. 

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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