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Ted,

I enjoyed your words very much - I share these concerns, but some of
those most enamored of telling (the erstwhile Mr Wagner, in particular)
drove me to retire from the field for lack of time to format a
non-flaming reply.  Thanks for tackling the task for me.  What is it you
do at Science Services?  I frequently find myself in Rye Brook (at my
in-laws)and it might be interesting to get together at some point.

Dave

David L Smith
Director of Professional Development 
Da Vinci DiscoveryCenter of Science and Technology
http://www.discovery-center.org



-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ted Ansbacher
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 4:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Statement about Science and Evolution


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. 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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