Florida Citizens for Science

Florida elementary school’s new science lab allows students to put away textbooks and learn hands-on.

[Seven Oaks Elementary] Principal B.J. Smith said the raucous activity in the lab - noisy but focused on the experiment - sends the message that the school is on the right track.

“Do you think they would be that excited if they were reading out of books?” Smith asked as she observed teacher Susan McKenna’s fourth-grade students use the lab for their energy and gravity experiments.

Science teacher Michael Varner is Escambia County’s Teacher of the Year.

“He is a legend,” said Tate Principal Rick Shackle. “We’ll find someone else to be the biology teacher. We’ll find someone else to teach dual-enrollment, but you can’t replace Mike Varner. You just can’t.”

St. Johns Difference Maker: Hilary Fisler, science teacher at Pacetti Bay Middle School

What do you love most about teaching science?

The students. They’re excited, they’re interested and they come to class with open minds. I don’t think there’s many professions where you get to work with people who are so willing to try new things and hear what’s out there. As we get older, I think we are more close-minded and my students just aren’t like that.

Kids learn lesson of galactic proportions.

“It’s one thing to just tell them that, but I remembered this experiment and how they could actually get a physical idea and see the distance between the planets for themselves,” Nevill said. “Hands on is what sticks. They may not remember the exact numbers 15 years from now, but they’re gonna remember the whole general concept of how far apart space really is.”

Here’s a story about Christian homeschool science textbooks that comes as no surprise, but is still upsetting. “These books are promulgating lies to kids,” said Jerry Coyne, an ecology and evolution professor at the University of Chicago.

“Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God will find many points in this book puzzling,” says the introduction to “Biology: Third Edition” from Bob Jones University Press. “This book was not written for them.”

…

Coyne and Virginia Tech biology professor Duncan Porter reviewed excerpts from the Apologia and Bob Jones biology textbooks, which are equivalent to ninth- and 10th-grade biology lessons. Porter said he would give the books an F.

“If this is the way kids are home-schooled then they’re being shortchanged, both rationally and in terms of biology,” Coyne said. He argued that the books may steer students away from careers in biology or the study of the history of the earth.

Imposing, smelly Humboldt squids a hit in Wesley Chapel classroom.

Ahh, that fishy smell. It wafted through the school’s hallways on Friday as marine sciences classes got the opportunity to dissect and examine nearly 5-foot-long Humboldt squids for the end of their invertebrate unit.

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“You guys, stop,” Keaundra responded as her classmates put the tangerine-sized eyeball close to her.

Then the unexpected. Keaundra took the eye. She smiled wide.

“It feels like someone is looking at me,” she said. “It’s interesting. What if my eye was this big?”

How big? Science department chairwoman Susan Cullum explained to the class that proportionally, the Humboldt squid has the biggest eye of any animal. A student would have an eye the size of his head to get the same ratio, she said to whoas and oohs.

…

“This should be the FCAT science test right here,” Crystal said, as she felt around the squid’s mantle, working to avoid the ink sac. “This should be the way they test science.”

Yes, Crystal, I agree. That’s how real science is done, so why wouldn’t science knowledge be tested in this way?

At the risk of being accused of scare mongering I wanted to bring to your attention the latest creationist ruse. Although this is some what old news, the New York Times has an article on the expanding agenda by anti evolutionists to link global warming and human cloning with the teaching of evolution.  The linkage of evolution and global warming is partly a legal strategy: courts have found that singling out evolution for criticism in public schools is a violation of the separation of church and state. By insisting that global warming also be debated, deniers of evolution can argue that they are simply championing academic freedom in general.

We all need to remain alert to these changing tactics and be ready to address them should any attempt be made to water down our own standards in Florida.

An Orlando Sentinel article offers quite a bit of food for thought when it comes to state-financed tuition vouchers. This money is used to give parents the choice of sending their kids to public school or a private school. This leads to a very good question: is education quality the same? These private schools have their own sets of standards apart from the state’s. For instance:

At Treasure of Knowledge Christian Academy in the Meadow Woods area of South Orange, 70 of about 100 students in its k-8 program run by the El Shaddai Christian Church are on the scholarship.

The school uses the conservative Accelerated Christian Education curriculum, which “searches proofs of creation and the flood” in eighth grade science, analyzes Christian leaders and missionaries in sixth grade social studies and has Bible study at every grade level.

State Education Commissioner Eric Smith is adamant about stricter standards for public schools, among them the tougher science curriculum approved by the state Board of Education two years ago requiring evolution to be taught. At the same time, Smith and lawmakers support the voucher program for private schools, although their curriculum often varies widely from state standards.

Hmmmmm … something doesn’t seem quite right here to me. What do you think?

The Florida Academy of Sciences is hosting its 74th Annual Meeting March 19-20 at Indian River State College, Fort Pierce. As part of that meeting, Florida Citizens for Science is proud to announce we are conducting a seminar:

“Attacks on Science, Science Education and Evolution” is co-sponsored by the Florida Academy of Sciences and Florida Citizens for Science, and will take place on Saturday, 20 March, 1:00-3:00 p.m., in the Health Sciences Center (room number to be announced). It will have four parts:
1) Evolution and the teaching of evolution. Speaker Dave Campbell (High School biology teacher, member of the new science standards writing committee, featured in a New York Times article on teaching evolution)
2) Myths about evolution. Speaker Debra Walker (anthropologist and member of Monroe County School Board)
3) The anti-science of antievolution. Speaker Wesley R. Elsberry (Biologist, involved in the evolution/creationist controversy since 1986, and worked with Genie Scott at NCSE from 2003 to 2007)
4) Brainstorm on how to raise the public’s understanding of science and its importance.

The seminar is free and open to the public. We invite you to stop by, say hello, and join in the conversation.

Florida Citizens for Science is working on the inaugural issue of a newsletter that will debut soon. Here is the call for submissions:

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Florida Science Matters is a quarterly newsletter edited and distributed by Florida Citizens for Science, a 501(c)(3) organization.  The newsletter features information and news pertaining to education and public policy relative to the teaching of science in Florida classrooms.

We actively seek submissions to supplement our content.  The audience is a broad group of scientific advocates, teachers and citizens concerned with exposing Florida’s children to the rigorous scientific topics and critical thinking methods they will need to succeed in tomorrow’s technical workplace.

While teaching of all areas of hypothesis-based science is important, the primary focus of Florida Science Matters will address the topic of evolution. Evolution is a scientific cornerstone that serves as a microcosm of the societal interface with science.  Evolution is the scientific topic that provokes attempted changes in public policy and tendencies for non-scientific discourse in and out of classrooms.

Keep in mind that your audience likely shares your opinions on teaching of scientific topics.  The object of submissions should be to broaden our understanding of existing topics or the way that existing science may be better disseminated. Submissions may include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Accounts of recent peer-reviewed evidence supporting evolution
• Examples of how to teach evolutionary principles
• Methods to communicate the science of evolution more clearly
• Means to refute arguments against established evolutionary tenets
• Examples of teachers or courses that portray the study of evolution as a rigorous and supported scientific discipline.
• News briefs of examples where teaching of non-scientific principles are being promoted or utilized as a basis for policy change or curriculum alteration.

Articles should be brief and will be reviewed by the editorial staff and anonymous review that may include relevant scholars in the area.  Submissions should be brief, as this is a newsletter and not a journal.  Guidelines will not be provided toward limits or appropriateness, but priority will be placed on concise works.

Please submit your articles to Kevin Folta (kfolta@ufl.edu ), Debra Walker (walkerd@terranova.net ) or Joe Wolf (joe.wolf@tampabay.rr.com).

Mark your calendars for Feb. 25. Astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History and Visiting Research Scientist and Lecturer at Princeton University, will be in Florida. Tyson will appear at 6:30 p.m. at MOSI’s IMAX Theater. His appearance is part of a new lecture series.