Florida Citizens for Science

Newly elected Florida legislators attended a briefing intended to give them an overview of what their role is in matters of education. The session was filmed and is available for viewing: 12/6/16 House “Legislator University” Training: An Overview of School Accountability.

Quite of bit of time was spent discussing the process of adopting instructional materials (textbooks and such). The lawmakers had interesting reactions and questions that provide some insight into their thinking. We get an idea of where they’re coming from and what combination of information and misinformation they came in with.

If you’re not familiar with Florida’s instructional materials review/adoption process, I encourage you to watch the video. It’s explained fairly well. I think a couple of points get muddled a bit but it’s overall useful information. We’re going to be adopting new science textbooks in the near future, so the better informed you are the better watchdogs we all can be.

The video is 44 minutes long but worth the time. The sound in the first few minutes is poor but it improves later. I’m guessing that some microphones hadn’t been switched on in the beginning.

Paul Nelson, of intelligent design’s Discovery Institute fame, will be infecting Florida with a new documentary film that is supposedly “Taking the Science World by Storm.” He’ll be schlepping around Tampa, Tarpon Springs and Port Richey Saturday through Monday. His tour includes a film showing at the University of South Florida, Gibbons Alumni Center and an appearance at the C.S. Lewis Society Coastal Holiday Luncheon.

If you happen to be in the area and feel like enduring something akin to driving a rusty spoon through your eye socket, please consider attending one of the events and reporting back to us what it was like.