|
DEBATE
Teach evolution: Leave no child behind
As I write this column, I'm flying from San Francisco
to New York City for three days of meetings at the American Museum of
Natural History on bringing the latest scientific data to the public via
museums and planetariums. I look forward to working with my colleagues.
I'm also eager to gaze again at their stunning collection of fossils and
to travel to distant locations in our universe at the Rose Center and
the Hayden Planetarium, the museum's digital planetarium. Both the
fossil dinosaurs and the immersive planetarium environment present
concrete evidence that evolution is pervasive throughout the natural
world. The universe evolved from the Big Bang to systems of galaxies,
stars, and planets; these, including Earth, continue to evolve.
Astronomers are teasing out the role of dark matter and dark energy.
Life on Earth goes back at least 3.5 billion years as evidenced by
fossilized stromatolites from Australia. Over that vast span of time,
there's evidence that life evolved from small single celled-organisms to
the incredible diversity we see today. Scientific research continues to
discover additional evidence that supports evolution as the fundamental
description for how the physical universe and life developed in the past
and will continue to change in the future.
Yet, teaching evolution remains controversial in
America.
Just now, I'm cruising at 35,000 feet above the
snow-laced landscape. The texture of the ground below reveals the power
of geologic forces. In California, Los Angeles moves inexorably toward
San Francisco at 3.5 cm per year. Anyone who has experienced an
earthquake has a personal understanding of the forces that drive
geological evolution. At altitude, the folds, rifts and fault lines
reveal an evolving planet. In what's called the range and basin region,
the western mountain chains thrust upward and great valleys drop between
them. The vast central plains stretch slowly downhill toward the East
Coast from the heights of the Rockies. Over time, the ancient inland
ocean receded, revealing most of what is now the center of our
continent. More than erosion and weathering shaped this land. As the
tectonic plates push and grind together, our planet evolves. It takes a
long time, but it makes sense when seen from an airplane window.
Teaching the age and history of our planet takes us back about 4.6
billion years; it is included in only 55% of our 50 State's science
education standards. Today, we find the fossil remains of extinct
creatures that wandered the shores of the ancient American sea high in
the Rockies and layered in the badlands of the US and Canada. The
evolution of life on our planet is evident in these layers of rock and
fossil. In Africa, fossil evidence of early hominids links us to
ancestral species. Where did we come from? We six billion humans find
our biological genesis in these African fossils.
Human evolution is included in the National Science
Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, our
national statements of the fundamental science concepts for grades K-12.
The Standards and Benchmarks describe the basics for scientifically
literate citizens. At the state level, politics overtake science
education. Human evolution is included in only 8% of the state science
standards, and is therefore not required in almost all American
elementary, middle or high school science courses. ("The Emphasis Given
to Evolution in State Science Standards: A lever for Change in Evolution
Education?" Gerald Skoog, Kimberly Bilica, 2002) The evolution of the
universe, our solar system, and our planet fare somewhat better, but
still do not appear in almost half of the states' science standards.
These standards drive the content of textbooks and state achievement
tests, and learning about evolution is getting left out. Evolution is
fundamental to modern biology, geology and astronomy. Ignoring or
discarding fundamental scientific understandings of the natural world
does not prepare our children well for the future. As America strives to
"leave no child behind," it's time that evolution is not left behind in
our science classrooms.
Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin Darwin was born
February 12, 1809; he published Origin of the Species at age 50.
Each year, Darwin's birthday is celebrated around the world.
Edna Devore
10 February 2005
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=96&ncid=753&e=10&u=/space/20050210/sc_space/teachevolutionleavenochildbehind
home /
Previous
viewpoint |
