Science Education
evolgen | April 8, 2006I'm sure most of my readers are familiar with the Canadian funding agency that rejected Brian Alters proposal to study the effects of intelligent design on the teaching of evolution. I don't have anything to say that hasn't been said already, but I will point you to EvolDir which has posted the summary of the grant proposal. In case you were wondering, here is the purpose of the study from the horse's mouth:
The purpose of this study is to measure the extent to which the recent large-scale popularization of Intelligent Design is detrimentally affecting Canadians' teaching and learning of…
tsmith | April 7, 2006[This is one from this past December]
My favorite essay arguing against intelligent design isn't one of Gould's, or Dawkins', or Sagan's. Rather, it's one from an essay that has portions I disagree with, but the eloquent prose simply can't be beat:
"The analogy which you attempt to establish between the contrivances of human art, and the various existences of the Universe, is inadmissible. We attribute these effects to human intelligence, because we know beforehand that human intelligence is capable of producing them. Take away this knowledge, and the grounds of our reasoning will be…
tsmith | April 4, 2006In addition to all the science of H5N1, several presentations were given discussing communication between scientists and the public (or those who more often communicate with the public--science journalists). As I've written on here before, it's not an easy dance to figure out, for a variety of reasons discussed below.
As anyone who follows science reporting in the mass media knows, it can seem at times that each new study contradicts the last. Something is good for you; yesterday it was bad for you. Something is the new treatment of tomorrow based on early studies; but sorry, it was…
tsmith | March 30, 2006Saw this awhile ago on Science and Politics, but it keeps getting pushed down the line of my entries. See what a panel of high-schoolers has to say about creationism, intelligent design, and evolution. I guess it should be considered a small victory that at least the word "evolution" isn't forbidden.
*sigh*
tsmith | March 19, 2006The Daily Transcript, a new Scienceblog, has a nice two-part post on the worst and the best parts of scientific life.
tsmith | March 16, 2006Over at Immunoblogging, Joseph has a multi-post series on the evolution of the immune system that I've been meaning to highlight, since obviously the claim that there's no research done in this area plays a large part in IDists' claims. So, some background reading on a few of the issues:
Part OnePart TwoPart Three
and a bonus (if a bit older) post on Toll-like receptors here, along with a newer overview here.
Additionally, at the new Good Math, Bad Math, Mark discusses Dembski's use of the NFL (No Free Lunch, not the sporting league) theorem and creationist use of probability. Check 'em…
evolgen | March 16, 2006Seven year old Autum Ashante read a poem she had written to middle- and high-school students in Peekskill, NY.
"Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse," the aspiring actress and poet wrote. "They took the gold, the wisdom and all the storytellers. They took the black women, with the black man weak. Made to watch as they changed the paradigm of our village.
"Yeah white nationalism is what put you in bondage."
She claims that she was trying to instill pride in black students and discourage violence. I'm no poetry expert, but I can see how she is encouraging black pride…
evolgen | March 15, 2006Randy Olson has been taking his film Flock of Dodos around the United States, showing free screenings at a bunch of universities. The list of places he's visited reads like the lyrics to a Johnny Cash song: Kansas City, Boston, New Haven, Houston. . . (if you have more places to add to the list, put them in the comments). But the show has skipped the largest university in one of the big anti-evolution states, Pennsylvania. It would be awesome if they could schedule a visit to Penn State, where there is some interest in evolution. What do I have to do to get a screening in Central…
tsmith | March 13, 2006Since they say this more succintly than I probably could, I'll just quote from the email I received:
AAAS is providing educators with practical resources to meet the challenge of teaching evolution. For example, at a successful special event for local teachers during our Annual Meeting in February, we distributed a packet titled Evolution on the Front Line: An Abbreviated Guide to Teaching Evolution. Project 2061, our long-term science education reform initiative, prepared the materials, which included the educational benchmarks for evolution knowledge at specific grade levels and other…
tsmith | March 11, 2006DarkSyde has a new interview up with Barbara Forrest, discussing the history of intelligent design, "the wedge," and how she became involved in all of it.
You may also want to check out DemfromCT's post on what we don't know about "bird flu."
What we don't know about H5N1 can fill a library. So when folks come on here and claim there's fearmongering going on whenever the virus is simply discussed, understand that knowledge is power and preparation is prudence, not fear.
Well said.
tsmith | March 10, 2006Evil monkey's pissed off about how scientists are viewed and treated. To hell with the nerdy sterotypes, the unrealistic portrayals in the movies and TV. Who are we really?
So who am I? I'm tenacious. I can be ground down but never stopped. Repeated setbacks fuel my desire to overcome an obstacle and solve the problem. I am calculating; after dusting myself off, I plan a new approach before trying again. I show up to work every day because ultimately my job gives me a chance to improve lives. It isn't about money but the excitement of discovering something completely new and the prospect…
evolgen | February 25, 2006I have always been disappointed by the EvoWiki -- I found that I could get better information on evolutionary biology from the regular Wikipedia. Now some folks have organized the evolution content on Wikipedia into navigation templates. I have not examined the content of the entries listed in these templates, but this seems like a cool idea.
Evolution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Evolution
Population genetics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Popgen
Development of phenotype (or "genetic architecture", its original name): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Genarch…
tsmith | February 24, 2006A lot on my plate this morning, but if you've not seen these already from yesterday, check out Respectful Insolence, where Orac has a post on using chemical castration as a treatment for autism. Just when you think things couldn't get any crazier...
PZ also has a post drawing your attention to a statement in this week's Science magazine: Medicine needs evolution.
The citation of "Evolution in Action" as Science's 2005 breakthrough of the year confirms that evolution is the vibrant foundation for all biology. Its contributions to understanding infectious disease and genetics are widely…
tsmith | February 16, 2006Just wanted to point you to these posts over at Mike's blog, regarding Jimmy Stewart, a former physicist and candidate for State Representative in Ohio's 22nd District: Dublin and Clintonville. I don't know him from Adam and so this doesn't constitute an endorsement in any way, but apparently he's reaching out to the blogosphere for both questions on his positions, and, of course, support. Mike's already asked him some questions (including ones about intelligent design and overall science education in Ohio's schools), and I submitted some as well that have reportedly been passed along.…
tsmith | February 14, 2006PZ and Ed have both mentioned this NY Times article suggesting that Ohio's about ready to cut out its cancer that are the Jon Wells-inspired "critical analysis of evolution" from their lesson plan. Richard Hoppe of Ohio Citizens for Science has been following the story over on Panda's Thumb--for example, here and here most recently). I'll be in Ohio later this week; hopefully some celebratin' will be in order. Keep your eye on it.
Also from over at PT, Reed shares an interview with Massimo Pigliucci, who's been holding Darwin Day celebrations since 1997 and helped to popularize them.…
tsmith | February 14, 2006This article appeared in Science last week, regarding evolution (and it's "challengers") on college campuses:
For decades, polls have indicated that close to half of the U.S. adult population is skeptical of the basic tenets of Darwinian evolution. Although more educated people are more likely to endorse evolution, a college degree is no guarantee that the graduate agrees with Darwin.
Provine himself has been surveying his Cornell students since 1986, when he started teaching an evolution course for nonbiology majors. He says that for many years, about 70% of students held views somewhere…
tsmith | February 13, 2006I've written before that teaching good science is really my utmost concern. This gets to the heart of the anti-evolution movement, the AIDS denialists, the vaccine/autism "controversy", the abortion-breast cancer "connection", and probably a dozen other topics in science that are largely misunderstood by the general public. Having a population better educated in science, who understand the scientific method, evidence, hypothesis generation and testing, and theory formulation would be a nice start.
When I wrote about this Time article, I missed this one in the same issue, discussing the…
tsmith | February 12, 2006As PZ mentioned, today would be Charles Darwin's 197th birthday. To celebrate, Mike over at The Questionable Authority is putting together a mini-carnival of posts on evolution. Specifically, he asked how those of us who are scientists use evolutionary theory in our work.
Personally, I'm a bit of a hybrid. I'm a microbiologist by training (my PhD is in microbial pathogenesis and gene regulation), but I loved epidemiology as an undergrad, and so did post-doctoral work in that area--and now am officially titled and "infectious disease epidemiologist". But, I'm still a lab rat rather than…
evolgen | February 10, 2006A few weeks ago Cell published a commentary by Paul Nurse, president of Rockefeller University, on US biomedical research under siege from people with political motivations. Nurse's intentions were noble, but his language was sloppy. The issue of Cell published today has a commentary by Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education. Scott's article provides an excellent review of American policy, education, and the anti-evolution movement -- if you're lucky enough to have access to Cell, go read the entire thing. If you don't have access, I have a few…
evolgen | February 7, 2006A friend of mine passed along this article from Inside Higher Ed (it's a couple of months old, so you may have seen it already) entitled "What They Don't Teach You in Graduate School". Depending on where you are in your academic career, you can either take it as advice on what you should do, advice on what you should have done, or as totally bogus because you know better. The article is aimed at graduate students, but there are insights to be gained by post-docs and junior faculty, as well. I particularly like this nugget:
"Remember that a Ph.D. is primarily an indication of survivorship…