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"
		





***********************************************************************
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.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]