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Diana;

As far as I know there are no school districts that require the 
teaching of creationism or creation science or ID in science 
classrooms. There is long history of litigation that has established 
these subjects as establishment of religion and that so far is 
forbidden by the Constitution. I emphasize so far.

That said there are attempts at inroads to science teaching by 
broadening the definition of scientific evidence (Kansas  and 
probably other states (see <http://www.natcensci.org> for updates)). 
In addition, teachers report being uncomfortable teaching evolution 
because of lack of support from local school boards, argumentative 
and hectoring by parents and students. Text books are altered for 
local markets. I have a copy of Miller and Levine's Biology, a 
popular and well written text, that says in bold letters "New York" 
across the cover. What is the Texas version like? There are also 
subtle and not so subtle pressures on teaching of evolution. One that 
I find most distressing is that though people say that nothing in 
biology makes sense except in the light of evolution (absolutely 
true) evolution is not suffused throughout curricula certainly not in 
New York City. It is taught, if there is time, at the end of the year 
long biology course as a topic separate from ecology, cell biology, 
metabolism etc. This is also a consequence of "teaching to the test". 
Evolution is not an underlying idea of the biology test children must 
pass. The Advanced placement Biology program handles evolution more 
thoroughly. Evolution is in separate chapters in virtually all 
biology texts. The BSCS Blue Biology text written just after 
Sputnick, during our science wake up, was the first text that I am 
aware of that presented biology with an evolution basis. The 
publication of this text some argue was a call to arms for 
anti-evolutionists.

In science museums evolution is not presented for many reasons and 
tends to be the topic of natural history museums. They generally do a 
very good job however from a paleontological or geological point of 
view and not necessary from a biological perspective. They also are 
not geared to a younger audience. There are exceptions. Judy Diamond 
and Judy Scotchmoor did a review of evolution exhibition for the 
recent evolution issue of Museums and Social Issues

We have embarked on an NSF funded project, Life Changes, to 
understand how children learn and understand evolution and to apply 
this to an exhibition and other programs. There is a lot of research 
that suggest that children regardless of family religious back ground 
(except fundamentalist families) can be encouraged and nudged to a 
more naturalistic interpretation of the natural world than their 
innate creationism would allow. We are evaluating a narrative story 
which is sucessful in engaging children in understanding evolution. 
We are continuing research and evaluation on this narrative and I 
fully expect it to be integral to our final program.

As part of the project we are also exploring ways of helping venues 
for the exhibition, and others,  train their docents, volunteers and 
Explainers to present evolution as science. (I wonder how the 
volunteers in Kentucky handle visitors who insist that they have the 
story wrong?) Many museums that have evolution exhibitions  have 
organized training sessions for their docents and these will serve as 
models for the training we are developing (eg Field Musuem, San Diego 
Musuem of Natural History, Denver, and others). The major difference 
between what they are doing and what we are developing is the age of 
the audience. There are no (?) exhibitions about evolution for 
specifically for children under 10-11-12 yo. If there are would you 
let me know?

School decisions tend to be local, in many parts of the country, so 
we need to be involved with local school boards. Kansas is an example 
and Dover is another of what can happen.

There are many roots causes and many solutions to the problem of 
science understanding and literacy. An interesting insight is 
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#bloom2



Martin

>
>
>While agreeing with the comments of both Nina Simon and Alan 
>Friedman on storytelling and the need for our institutions to 
>promote fascinating narratives on evolution, I can't help but feel 
>this is fighting the symptoms instead of  the disease.  As long as 
>creationism is sanctioned by  the formal educational system and 
>spoon-fed to children at school, attempts  to counterbalance this 
>brainwashing via our exhibitions are but a drop in the ocean, 
>however commendable. Children taught from a young age to see the 
>world through the eyes of creationism will not see the light because 
>they visited our exhibition, project, or programme on evolution. Our 
>energy must primarily be aimed at  the root of the problem: lobbying 
>both congress and senate to stop endorsing creationism as an 
>alternative to the teaching of evolution in schools.
>
>Diana Issidorides
>
>- -
>Dr. Diana C. Issidorides
>Senior Scientist & Exhibition Developer
>Science Center NEMO
>P.O. Box 421
>1000 AK Amsterdam
>The Netherlands
>T: +31205313201
>[log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]
>www.e-nemo.nl
>
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-- 
Martin Weiss, Ph.D
Vice President, Science
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111 th Street
Corona, New York 11368
718 699 0005 x 356

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