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William
Yes, there are different terms you can use—variation, adaptation, time,
heredity and selection—to introduce natural selection as a mechanism for e .
. . n and in extreme situations maybe that's the way to go. However, by not
introducing this concept you'll deprive students of the beauty
and interrelatedness of biology.
Martin
On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 4:02 PM, William Katzman <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
> *****************************************************************************
>
> Martin,
>
> I would argue that you can teach the concept of evolution without teaching
> the word evolution - and that may well be what some people choose to do. A
> corollary of that within physics would be learning about force and
> acceleration without calling them Newton's laws. With that being said, I
> always felt that while growing up high school biology was taught as a
> collection of facts.
>
> Admittedly a good teacher would also emphasize the way bodily systems
> worked and interacted, and that was far more interesting than memorizing the
> parts of a cell, but that may be one reason I never felt compelled to go
> into biology, in spite of my love for animals! I wanted to know how
> everything worked - not just how one creature worked.
>
> I agree that you can teach the underlying principles of the physical world
> without the big bang, and you can learn parts of physics without
> understanding other parts. Obviously though, a fair number of people learn
> what they think of as biology without apparently accepting evolution.
>
> -William
>
> On Feb 10, 2011, at 2:35 PM, Martin Weiss wrote:
>
> > ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> > Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> >
> *****************************************************************************
> >
> > There is on problem with what you wrote William, without evolution
> biology
> > is a collection of 'facts" and organisms with no way of interpreting our
> > natural world. I suspect, but I maybe wrong, you can teach the physical
> > world without the "big bang". Maybe not.
> >
> > Martin
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 3:25 PM, William Katzman <
> > [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> >> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> >> institutions.
> >>
> >>
> *****************************************************************************
> >>
> >> I think everyone may be missing one more reason why teachers don't
> always
> >> teach with the word evolution. Imagine your students have been taught
> that
> >> the word evolution is sacrilege or possibly even a slur. Well, as a
> biology
> >> teacher then I I have a decision to make - do I use it and risk
> alienating
> >> some students, or do I avoid the word (and admittedly possibly the
> concept),
> >> and concentrate on areas where I believe I can make advances?
> >>
> >> Every time we teach something we have three decisions to make: 1) What
> are
> >> the most vital things to teach. 2) How do you teach it. 3) What are
> the
> >> things we should leave out.
> >> Every time you teach one item, you are always making a decision to leave
> >> something out. With certain terms, (evolution, big bang), I have
> actually
> >> seen the concepts (or peripheral concepts) taught where teachers avoided
> the
> >> specific terms because of perceived audience reaction. So people teach
> >> adaptation without mentioning that this is essentially evolution's
> basis.
> >> On the other hand I have also known a biology major and one-time head of
> an
> >> science museum's education dept. who was a staunch fundamentalist that
> did
> >> not believe in cross-species evolution.
> >>
> >> As a former physics teacher, I actually encouraged people to doubt
> things -
> >> including Newton's Laws. However I cautioned that until they could come
> up
> >> with a better idea that explained nature, they would still have to learn
> the
> >> "state of the art."
> >>
> >> -William
> >>
>
> William Katzman Program
> Leader
> [log in to unmask] LIGO Science
> Education Center
> 225-686-3134 "Inspiring
> Science"
>
>
>
>
>
>
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--
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Martin Weiss, PhD
Science Interpretation, Consultant
New York Hall of Science
mweiss at nyscience.org
347-460-1858
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
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