DOCSLIB.ORG

December 2007 Beacon

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
December 2007 Beacon The BEACON News from The Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education Volume XI, No. 4 Copyright © December 2007 In this issue: President’s Message—Dave Thomas, Toon by Trever Copyright Albuquerque Journal, 11-14-07—John Trever, used with permission, A Better Metric—Walt Murfin,Flock of Dodos (film) coming in February—see page 8. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ingly explained how Behe was misrepresenting his actual position: “What I wrote was that this Things are once again heating up in the is a machine that looks like it was designed by never-ending assault on science education. a human. But that doesn’t mean that it was And this week (I’m writing this mid-November) designed, that is, the product of Intelligent De- included several events that bring the issue sign. Indeed, this, more, has all the earmarks of into sharp focus. The most significant of these something that arose by evolution.” And then, was the long-awaited airing of the PBS/NOVA DeRosier showed real microphotographs of an special on the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School assembly containing a subset of the same pro- District court case of 2005, titled “Judgment teins forming the base of the flagellum: “This is Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” (aired Novem- a structure found, for example, in Yersinia Pestis, ber 13, 2007). the bacterium that causes the Bubonic Plague. The two-hour production was splendid. Look at the similarities. … It’s like—sort of like At times it was like a biology class most of us a syringe… So, indeed, the [flagellum] structure would have been delighted to attend. When is not, in that sense, irreducibly complex. ” the alleged lack of transitional fossils came up, Another splendid example of riveting the program shifted gears, taking us directly to science was provided in a discussion on why a barren Canadian outcrop bearing incredible gorillas and chimps and other great apes have fossils of a genuine fish with legs— Tiktaalik 24 chromosomes, while humans have only —found in strata of just the right age (375 mil- 23. The trial testimony of Ken Miller was lion years old) for the predicted transition from presented, in which the Brown biologist and fish to tetrapods. textbook author said “Well, evolution makes a Intelligent Design (ID) proponent Michael testable prediction, and that is, somewhere in Behe’s actual court testimony was presented, the human genome we ought to be able to find regarding whether or not bacterial flagella (tiny a piece of Scotch tape holding together two chro- hair-like appendages which propel bacteria mosomes so that (of)our 24 pairs -two of them through liquids) are “Irreducibly Complex” (so [were] pasted together to form just 23. And if we complex that the absence of even one compo- can’t find that, then the hypothesis of common nent would render it useless, precluding its ancestry is wrong and evolution is mistaken. …” evolution from simpler precursors). On the wit- Then, vivid graphics were employed to show ness stand, Behe quoted Brandeis University recent research which solved this enigma —in biology professor David DeRosier directly: “More humans, two of the 24 original chromosomes so than other motors, the flagellum resembles are indeed fused, resulting in a single chromo- a machine designed by a human.” But NOVA some (Number 2) didn’t stop there. They found and interviewed DeRosier himself, and he clearly and convinc- Continued on page 2 December 2007 The Beacon, Vol.XI, No. 4 Page 2 Continued from page 1. The Beacon is published quarterly by the Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education with more than just the two normal ends (telomeres) and (CESE). A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, we are single center (centromere) of ordinary chromosomes. incorporated in the State of New Mexico. Visit Just as predicted, Chromosome Number 2 has three our web site at www.cesame-nm.org. telomeres, separated by two centromeres, as would WEBMASTER: Jesse Johnson be expected if two chromosomes had been fused into one. BOARD OF DIRECTORS More than great science, though, the NOVA PRESIDENT David E. Thomas special got the politics and religion right too. The [email protected] original creationist motivations for the ill-fated policy, the perjury and misrepresentations of the Dover VICE PRESIDENT/PRES. ELECT school board members who started the process, and Lisa Durkin [email protected] much more were clearly and accurately presented. One of the most vivid segments showed the startling SECRETARY evolution of the ID text at the heart of the Dover trial, Marilyn Savitt-Kring Of Pandas and People, from an overtly creationist book [email protected] (just before the 1987 Supreme Court ruling against TREASURER “creation science”) into the first “Intelligent Design” Jerry Shelton book. Professor Barbara Forrest was interviewed, [email protected] saying “In cleansing this (early) manuscript, they PAST PRESIDENT failed to replace every word properly. I found the word Kim Johnson ‘creationists.’ And instead of replacing the entire word, [email protected] they just kind of did this and got ‘design proponents’ with the ‘c’ in front and the ‘ists’ in the back from the MEMBERS AT LARGE Dr. Marshall Berman original word.…” (cdesign proponentsists) [email protected] An interview with the judge who ended up ruling that ID is religion, and not science, focused on Steve Brugge the main charge ID supporters levy against teaching [email protected] mainstream biology in public schools. Judge John Cindy Chapman E. Jones III said in a (later) interview that “Both [email protected] Defendants and many of the leading proponents of Intelligent Design make a bedrock assumption which is Jack Jekowski [email protected] utterly false. Their presupposition is that evolutionary theory is antithetical to a belief in the existence of a Jesse Johnson supreme being and to religion in general. …” [email protected] The official ID “Think” Tank, the Discovery Dr. Marvin Moss Institute, immediately published its own guide to [email protected] counter the effective PBS production. In the guide, called “The Theory of Intelligent Design: A briefing Dr. Rebecca Reiss [email protected] packet for educators, to help teachers understand the debate between Darwinian evolution and intelligent Jim Stuart design,” the Institute’s John West and Casey Luskin [email protected] pompously declared that the NOVA program was “clearly unconstitutional”: “The question of whether evolution is compatible with religion is essentially a CESE annual dues are $25 for individual, $35 for theological question, and public schools are forbidden family, and $10 for students. Please make check from endorsing any particular theological position payable to CESE and mail to 11617 Snowheights Blvd. NE, Albuquerque NM 87112-3157. Email regarding evolution.” submissions to Editor, Nancy Shelton, nshelton10@ This is the crux of the whole controversy. The comcast.net Discovery Institute certainly doesn’t want students to learn that many religious faiths are not at all http://www.cesame-nm.org December 2007 The Beacon, Vol.XI, No. 4 Page 3 opposed to evolution science. Rather than apparent fertility of the Universe itself. He simply presenting the facts of modern biology, asked “Why did it take 12 billion years just to and allowing students to decide for themselves make an amoeba?” His answer was that that whether or not these facts are compatible with was about how long it takes stars to go through their personal religious views, the Institute three generations of formation and immolation, continues to equate “Darwinism” with outright finally producing the heavier elements required atheism. That is, the only ones espousing a for life. “particular theological position regarding evolu- As for Intelligent Design, Coyne described tion” are the Intelligent Design leaders them- it as a “disease that is spreading,” and as selves. something that is not science, but simply poor The founder of the ID Movement, lawyer religion. Much of the subsequent discussion Phillip Johnson, declared in Creator or Blind centered on the basic fraudulence of the ID Watchmaker? (First Things, January 1993) movement.The new Discovery Institute briefing that “…the attempt to reconcile Darwinism and packet displays much of this fraudulence, theism collapses. Either God rules creation— once again repeating the falsehood that New which means that He somehow directed Mexico is one of several states that “have evolution to produce humans—or He doesn’t. science standards that require learning about The former isn’t Darwinism, and the latter isn’t some of the scientific controversies relating to theism.” And top ID theorist William Dembski evolution.” pontificated in What Every Theologian Should In closing, the Rio Rancho School Board Know about Creation, Evolution, and Design is set to consider repealing Science Policy 401, (1996) that “Design theorists are no friends widely perceived as ID-friendly, at its upcoming of theistic evolution. … When boiled down to December 3rd meeting. While supporters of the its scientific content, theistic evolution is no policy contend that it’s innocuous and innocent, different from atheistic evolution, accepting as the head of the local ID group, Joe Renick, it does only purposeless, naturalistic, material revealed otherwise in an interview on religious processes for the origin and development of station KNKT earlier this year: “If we had a life.” dozen school districts in New Mexico that came Two days after the NOVA program was up with a policy on science education similar aired, Father George Coyne, former director to that one that was passed by the Rio Rancho of the Vatican Observatory, spoke at UNM’s school board, that would shake the ground. ... Northrop Hall. He talked eloquently about his That would be the start of a revolution.” views on the marvelous dance in the Universe As they say, we are cursed with living in between Chance and Necessity, and of the interesting times.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Creation, Design and Evolution: Can Science Discover Or Eliminate God?
    University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy Volume 4 Issue 1 Fall 2009 Article 5 January 2009 Creation, Design and Evolution: Can Science Discover or Eliminate God? Peter M.J. Hess Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.stthomas.edu/ustjlpp Part of the First Amendment Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, and the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Peter M. Hess, Creation, Design and Evolution: Can Science Discover or Eliminate God?, 4 U. ST. THOMAS J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 102 (2009). Available at: https://ir.stthomas.edu/ustjlpp/vol4/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UST Research Online and the University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy. For more information, please contact the Editor-in-Chief at [email protected]. CREATION, DESIGN AND EVOLUTION: CAN SCIENCE DISCOVER OR ELIMINATE GOD? PETER M. J. HESS, PH.D.* NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth his handiwork." Psalms 19:1 INTRODUCTION: THE PLAYING OUT OF THE DESIGN ARGUMENT IN THE WEST Every culture has its views about the universe, about the human person, and about the great metaphysical questions that confront us. How ought we to think about the relationship between cosmology, anthropology, and theology? This may be a challenge for us in our increasingly secular post- modem culture, but for most of human history it was not an issue. In the Judeo-Christian tradition these areas of human reflection were naturally bound up together, as in the Hebrew psalmist's proto-statement of the argument from design: "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth his handiwork."' The scholastic university culture of the High Middle Ages held as its ideal the "unity of knowledge," or unitas scientiae, approaching the study of the universe as a coherent and knowable whole.
    [Show full text]
  • Measuring and Understanding Public Opinion on Human Evolution
    Measuring and Understanding Public Opinion on Human Evolution A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science of the College of Arts and Sciences by Misook Gwon, M.A. Political Science, University of Cincinnati December 2012 Committee Chair: Stephen T. Mockabee, PhD ABSTRACT The theory of evolution has long generated controversy in American society, but Americans‘ attitudes about human evolution are often neglected in studies of ―culture wars‖ and the nature of mass belief systems more generally (Berkman and Plutzer 2010; Freeland and Houston 2009). Gallup and other survey organizations have polled about evolution, but offered limited response categories that mask complexity in public opinion (Bishop 2006; Moore 2008). The main problems concerning the leading survey questions about evolution are: first, questions measure only a single dimension, thus they ignore the potential for multidimensionality in people‘s attitudes. Second, depending on question wording and response options, the results of public opinion surveys vary by polling groups. This is an example of measurement error which misleads the interpretation and impression of American public opinion on the origin of humankind. A number of studies have analyzed Americans‘ beliefs about evolution and hypothesized about the influential effects of several factors (Deckman 2002; Mazur 2005; Mooney 2005; Miller et al. 2006; Newport 2006; Forrest 2007; Nisbet and Goidel 2007; Scott 2009). However, there remains a lack of complete understanding of what Americans know and believe about human evolution. Given the salience of this issue and the significant influence of public opinion on policy-making in America (Page and Shapiro 1992; Stimson 2004; Newport 2004), the measurement error and explanation of polling results on controversial issues related to this topic are in need of clarification.
    [Show full text]
  • Barbara Carroll Forrest, Ph.D
    Barbara Carroll Forrest, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy Department of History and Political Science http://www.selu.edu/acad_research/depts/hist_ps/faculty/bio/forrest.html Southeastern Louisiana University http://www.selu.edu/index.html Curriculum Vitae (Abridged) — July 2007 SLU 10484 Websites: University Station http://www.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/bforrest/ Hammond, LA 70402 http://www.creationismstrojanhorse.com/ E–mail: [email protected] Voice: 985–549–5097 Fax: 985–549–2012 Biosketch Barbara Forrest is a Professor of Philosophy in the Department of History and Political Science at Southeastern Louisiana University. She is the co-author with Paul R. Gross of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (Oxford University Press, 2004; 2007, 2nd ed.), which details the political and religious aims of the intelligent design creationist movement. She served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the first legal case involving intelligent design, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District, which originated in Dover, PA, and was resolved with a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in December 2005. She is a member of the board of directors of the National Center for Science Education and the National Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. She has appeared on Larry King Live, ABC's Nightline, and the BBC’s Horizon documentary about the Kitzmiller trial, “A War on Science.” Her radio interviews include NPR's Science Friday with Ira Flatow and Americans United’s Culture Shocks with Barry Lynn. She is the 2006 co-recipient with Brown University cell biologist Kenneth Miller of the American Society for Cell Biology’s Public Service Award.
    [Show full text]
  • Cinema and the Kansas/Plains Past
    Cinema and the Kansas/Plains Past Film Reviews edited and introduced by Thomas Prasch s any Kansan who crosses a border knows—as soon as it occurs to some wit to say something in that familiar “not in Kansas anymore” range—there is one universal association everyone has with the Kansas past: The Wizard of AOz (1939). And, with Wicked still packing houses on Broadway, with Oz references proliferating in every sphere of popular culture (from an homage episode of the television series Scrubs to characters from Oz materializing in the “I’m Glad I’m Gay” musical number of Queer Duck: The Movie [2006]), that is unlikely to change soon. It says something about the depth of Ozian references that it now seems impossible even to talk about the war in Iraq without dropping an allusion to the classic fi lm: the Emerald City serves as metaphor for the illusions and isolated character of American policy in Iraq in Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s recent critique Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Iraq’s Green Zone (2006), while White House spokes- person Tony Snow has lately urged reporters: “Please avoid the idea that Iraq is like Oz, and one day it’s going to be black and white and the next day you’re going to wake up and it’s color” (White House Press Briefi ng, May 8, 2007). Wherever one fi nds a yellow brick road or a wizard behind the curtain, someone is thinking of Kansas. Insofar as Kansas history fi gures into the mainstream imaginary in any other signifi cant way, it is as that mythologized repository of changeless American midwestern values.
    [Show full text]
  • Darwin's Poisoned Tree: Atheistic Advocacy and the Constitutionality
    Darwin’s Poisoned Tree: Atheistic Advocacy and the Constitutionality of Teaching Evolution in Public Schools By Casey Luskin M.S., J.D., ESQ Trinity Law Review Fall, 2015 Volume 21, Issue 1, Pp. 130-233 Published by Trinity Law School lawschool.tiu.edu '$5:,1¶632,621('75(($7+(,67,& $'92&$&<$1'7+(&2167,787,21$/,7<2) 7($&+,1*(92/87,21,138%/,&6&+22/6 &$6(</86.,1 ,QWURGXFWLRQ 7KHWHDFKLQJRIELRORJLFDORULJLQVLQSXEOLFVFKRROVLVDFRQWHQWLRXV DQGKLJKO\GHEDWHGDUHDRIWKHODZ,IWKHUHLVDQ\IL[HGVWDURIWKLVHYROYLQJ OHJDO ILHOG LW LV WKH 86 6XSUHPH &RXUW¶V KROGLQJ LQ Epperson v. ArkansasWKDW³>W@KH)LUVW$PHQGPHQWPDQGDWHVJRYHUQPHQWDOQHXWUDOLW\ EHWZHHQUHOLJLRQDQGUHOLJLRQDQGEHWZHHQUHOLJLRQDQGQRQUHOLJLRQ´ )ROORZLQJWKLVPDQGDWHIRUVWDWHQHXWUDOLW\LQHYROXWLRQHGXFDWLRQ YDULRXVFRXUWVDQGOHJDOVFKRODUVKDYHRSSRVHGWKHWHDFKLQJRIDOWHUQDWLYHV WR HYROXWLRQ E\ FLWLQJ DQ KLVWRULFDO FRQQHFWLRQ EHWZHHQ RSSRVLWLRQ WR HYROXWLRQ DQG WKH DGYRFDF\ RI ³IXQGDPHQWDOLVW´ UHOLJLRQ 2QH DXWKRU FRQWHQGVWKDWDWWHPSWVWRWHDFKQRQHYROXWLRQDU\YLHZSRLQWVRIELRORJLFDO RULJLQV DUHXQFRQVWLWXWLRQDO EHFDXVH VXFK YLHZSRLQWVDUH DVVRFLDWHG ZLWK UHOLJLRQ PDNLQJ WKHP ³>I@UXLW RI WKH SRLVRQ WUHH´ $QRWKHU VFKRODU VLPLODUO\VXJJHVWVWKDWVRPHHGXFDWLRQDOSROLFLHVWKDWVDQFWLRQFULWLTXHRI HYROXWLRQ HQWDLO ³JRYHUQPHQW PHDVXUHVWKDW DULVH IURP D FRQVWLWXWLRQDOO\ SUREOHPDWLFKLVWRU\´DQGDUHWKHUHIRUH³WDLQWHGIUXLWRIWKHSRLVRQRXV WUHH´ .ULVWL / %RZPDQ ZDUQV WKDW XQGHU FXUUHQW ODZ WKH ³UHOLJLRXV $WWRUQH\DW/DZ5HVHDUFK&RRUGLQDWRU'LVFRYHU\,QVWLWXWH6HDWWOH:$%6 8QLYHUVLW\RI&DOLIRUQLD6DQ'LHJR068QLYHUVLW\RI&DOLIRUQLD6DQ'LHJR-' 8QLYHUVLW\RI6DQ'LHJR7KHDXWKRUWKDQNV$QLND6PLWK'DYLG'H:ROI6DUDK&KDIIHH
    [Show full text]
  • Open Thesis FINAL.Pdf
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Education INTELLLIGENT DESIGN AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY: THE CASE OF KANSAS A Thesis in Educational Theory and Policy by John Yoshito Jones © 2007 John Yoshito Jones Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2007 ii The thesis of John Yoshito Jones was reviewed and approved* by the following: David A. Gamson Associate Professor of Education Thesis Adviser Chair of Committee Mindy L. Kornhaber Associate Professor of Education Dana L. Mitra Assistant Professor of Education Hiroshi Ohmoto Professor of Geochemistry Jacqueline Stefkovich Professor of Education Head of the Department of Education Policy Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Advocates of an alternative explanation of life’s origins, Intelligent Design, have lobbied hard since the 1987 Edwards v. Aguillard decision, which banned “creation science” from public schools, to effect educational policy change through local and state-level school boards. This study examines one such lobbying effort, the 2005 attempt to modify the Kansas Curricular Standards for Science so that biological evolution is actively challenged in the classroom, by analyzing the actions and motivations of several members of the Kansas Board of Education as well as non-Board participants through personal interviews and contempoary media reports. Board minutes from 1999 to 2007 and transcripts from the Board’s May, 2005, public hearings on evolution are also analyzed. This study asks, “what strategies have creationists developed in the wake of the 1987 Edwards v. Aguillard Supreme Court decision striking down creation science and how have those strategies been employed?” The question’s presumption, that Intelligent Design advocates have employed new strategies to advance a creationist agenda, is validated in the study through coding the language used by the interviewees, the Board minutes, and hearings transcripts, as well as a review of contemporary media coverage.
    [Show full text]
  • Scientific Toolkit Is How to Think About Things in the World Over a Wide Range of Magnitudes and Time Scales
    226 WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT? The term 'scientific"is to be understood in a broad sense as the most reliable way of gaining knowledge about anything, whether it be the human spirit, the role of great people in history, or the structure of DNA. A "scientific concept" may come from philosophy, logic, economics, jurisprudence, or other analytic enterprises, as long as it is a rigorous conceptual tool that may be summed up succinctly (or "in a phrase") but has broad application to understanding the world. [Thanks to Steven Pinker for suggesting this year's Edge Question and to Daniel Kahneman for advice on its presentation.] 158 CONTRIBUTORS (109,600 words): Richard Thaler, Brian Eno, J. Craig Venter, Martin Rees, Mahzarin Banaji, V.S. Ramachandran, Stefano Boeri, Nigel Goldenfeld, Gary Marcus, Andrew Revkin, Stuart Firestein, Beatrice Golomb, Diane Halpern, Kevin Hand, Barry Smith, Kevin Hand, Garrett Lisi, David Dalrymple, Xeni Jardin, Seth Lloyd, Brian Knutson, Carl Page, Victoria Stodden, David Rowan, Hazel Rose Markus & Alana Conner, Fiery Cushman, David Eagleman, Joan Chiao, Max Tegmark, Tecumseh Fitch, Joshua Greene, Stephon Alexander, Gregory Cochran, Tor Norretranders , Laurence Smith, Carl Zimmer, Roger Highfield, Marcelo Gleiser, Richard Saul Wurman, Anthony Aguirre, Sam Harris, P.Z. Myers, Sue Blackmore, Bart Kosko, David Buss, John Tooby, Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran, Paul Bloom, Evgeny Morozov, Mark Pagel, Kathryn Schulz, Ernst Pöppel, Tania Lombrozo, Paul Saffo, Jay Rosen, Timothy Taylor, Jonah Lehrer, Marco Iacoboni, Dave Winer, George Church, Kai Krause, Gloria Origgi, Tom Standage, Vinod Khosla, Dan Sperber, Geoffrey Miller, Satyajit Das, Alun Anderson, Eric Topol, Amanda Gefter, Scott D.
    [Show full text]
  • Standing up to Experts: the Politics of Public Education
    STANDING UP TO EXPERTS: THE POLITICS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION Scott Thurman, B.F.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2010 APPROVED: Ben Levin, Major Professor C. Melinda Levin, Committee Member and Chair of Department of Radio, Television and Film Ron Wetherington, Committee Member James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Thurman, Scott. Standing Up to Experts: The Politics of Public Education. Master of Fine Arts (Radio, Television and Film), December 2010, 55 pp., bibliography, 1 title. In a small room in Austin, Texas, a group of 15 people are single-handedly deciding what is taught to the next generation of American children. The highly politicized 15 member Texas Board of Education is currently going through the once-in-a-decade process of rewriting the teaching and textbook standards for its nearly 5 million schoolchildren. Texas is also unbelievably influential on the standards that textbook publishers use as a basis for their textbooks nationwide. Over the last 10 years, the textbooks adopted by this board found their way in upwards of 65% of American classrooms. My goal is to shed light on this important issue and the key players in this process – I explain their goals, explore the scope of their influence, and delve into the personal motivations behind their actions, which will affect public education throughout the country. Copyright 2010 by Scott Thurman
    [Show full text]
  • December 2008
    IGDP in Ecology Newsletter December 2008 Volume 5 No 3 Know of any accomplishments by Ecology graduate students, postdocs or faculty? Send them along to Stephanie Lessard-Pilon ([email protected]) to have these accomplishments published in the newsletter! New student-taught class a success -Ruscena Wiederholt Comments from people involved with the course: A student-organized introductory Ecology course, called Concepts in Ecology (ECLGY “It was a great opportunity to get some 597E), was offered for the first time this Fall. lecturing experience, especially on The objective of the course was to provide an topics I hadn't taught before, and the overview of basic ecological concepts and immediate feedback from the theory for new Ecology graduate students or students was extremely helpful”. -Angie Luis interested students from other departments. (instructor) The course was taught by a number of Ecology graduate students and post-docs “I thought it was an excellent course and a and covered a variety of topics including great idea. My liberal arts education in population, community, and quantitative undergrad was great in a lot of ways, but it ecology. When possible, the course was weak in ecology. This class allowed me paralleled the topics discussed in Classical to learn about the fundamentals of the Ecology in order to provide background on science. I used what I learned in this class in the classic papers and articles discussed that my classical ecology course every week, and week. also in designing my own research proposal. I also think it is a great opportunity to meet The course was the brainchild of Marc other ecology colleagues, from the first year Goebel and Stephanie Lessard-Pilon, who students taking the class to the students also organized and administrated it.
    [Show full text]
  • Etdkwasiborski.Pdf (581.4Kb)
    FROM WEDGE STRATEGY TO KITZMILLER: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN ARGUMENT SERIES By Victoria Kwasiborski Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science In Science and Technology Studies Matthew Goodrum, Chairman Barbara Allen Barbara Reeves Lee Zwanziger 7 August 2007 Blacksburg and Alexandria, Virginia Keywords: Intelligent Design, Rhetoric, Diction Copyright 2007, Victoria Kwasiborski FROM WEDGE STRATEGY TO KITZMILLER: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN ARGUMENT SERIES By Victoria Kwasiborski Abstract Many scientific claims being made today are not based on established scientific principles. They are a result of motivating factors that include media, political influences, legal and social issues, economic pursuits, the experimental procedure itself, peer review, and, central to this thesis, the lack of science education of the public. Intelligent Design, a much discussed potential theory of biological origins is one of these claims. Intelligent Design offers an array of scientific and probabilistic arguments supporting the concept that an intelligent agency better accounts for certain aspects of the natural world. The response and reaction to this theory within the science, political, education and religious communities has been increasingly expressive. Some believe that Intelligent Design is a threat to Darwinian evolution, some argue that teaching ID as an evolutionary theory is "only fair." And all believe the stakes are high—to the victor goes the privilege of teaching their theory as biology in the public school classroom. This study of Intelligent Design is not an extensive quantitative review of primary materials in the scientific debate, or qualitative reviews of sweeping breadth of religious- based theories.
    [Show full text]
  • Science and Mathematics Education in Honors
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln NCHC Monographs Series National Collegiate Honors Council 2012 The Other Culture: Science and Mathematics Education in Honors Ellen B. Buckner University of South Alabama, [email protected] Keith Garbutt West Virginia University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcmono Buckner, Ellen B. and Garbutt, Keith, "The Other Culture: Science and Mathematics Education in Honors" (2012). NCHC Monographs Series. 19. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcmono/19 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the National Collegiate Honors Council at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in NCHC Monographs Series by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. The Other Culture: Science and Mathematics Education in Honors NCHC Monograph Series The Other Culture: Science and Mathematics Education in Honors Ellen B. Buckner and Keith Garbutt, Editors National Collegiate Honors Council ISBN 978-0-983-5457-3-6 THE OTHER CULTURE: SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN HONORS Edited by Ellen B. Buckner and Keith Garbutt Jeffrey A. Portnoy Georgia Perimeter College [email protected] General Editor, NCHC Monograph Series Published in 2012 by National Collegiate Honors Council University of Nebraska–Lincoln 110 Neihardt Residence Center 540 N. 16th Street Lincoln, NE 68588-0627 (402) 472-9150 FAX: (402) 472-9152 Email: [email protected] http://www.NCHChonors.org © Copyright 2012 by National Collegiate Honors Council International Standard Book Number 978-0-983-5457-3-6 Production Editors: Cliff Jefferson and Mitch Pruitt Wake Up Graphics, Birmingham, AL Printed by EBSCO Media, Birmingham, AL TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface .
    [Show full text]
  • Creationism and Intelligent Design
    he name DGGTB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte und Theorie Deutsche Gesellschaft für der Biologie; German Society for the History and Philosophy of Biology) reflT ects recent history as well as German tradition. The Society is a relatively Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie late addition to a series of German societies of science and medicine that began with the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften”, founded in 1910 by Leipzig University’s Karl Annals of the History Sudhoff (1853-1938), who wrote: “We want to establish a ‘German’ society in order to gather German-speaking historians together in our special and Philosophy of Biology disciplines so that they form the core of an international society…”. Yet Sudhoff, at this time of burgeoning academic internationalism, was “quite Volume 19 (2014) willing” to accommodate the wishes of a number of founding members and “drop the word German in the title of the Society and have it merge formerly Jahrbuch für with an international society”. The founding and naming of the Society at Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie that time derived from a specifi c set of historical circumstances, and the same was true some 80 years later when in 1991, in the wake of German Elizabeth Watts reunifi cation, the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie” was founded. From the start, the Society has been committed Analysis of Creationism in the United States to bringing studies in the history and philosophy of biology to a wide from Scopes (1925) to Kitzmiller (2005) and its audience, using for this purpose its Jahrbuch für Geschichte und Theorie Effect on the Nation’s Science Education System der Biologie.
    [Show full text]