{"id":1292,"date":"2011-04-08T22:50:51","date_gmt":"2011-04-09T02:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1292"},"modified":"2011-04-08T22:51:11","modified_gmt":"2011-04-09T02:51:11","slug":"evolution-newspaper-story-a-confusing-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1292","title":{"rendered":"Evolution newspaper story a confusing mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling mighty confused by an article that recently appeared in Hernando Today (a Tampa Tribune paper): Educators: Bill that criticizes evolution won’t hurt students<\/a>. Read the following excerpt and ponder what is being stated for a moment:<\/p>\n

Dr. Stacey Thomson, chairwoman of the science department at Pasco-Hernando Community College<\/a>, said adding evolutionary criticism, Intelligent Design or other non-evolution theories wouldn’t affect students’ performance.<\/p>\n

By the time they reach post-secondary education and biology classes, she said many start from scratch learning the basics in 101 classes.<\/p>\n

“These classes are very broad-based and whatever education they get in high school is not going to change their success or lack thereof,” Thomson said. “The problem we have is when students come from high school with no critical thinking skills, no math skills or no ethics. So if they can get students to start making decisions and use critical thinking skills, regardless of the focus, then all of that is probably a plus.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is how I read it: nothing a student learns in high school will have any effect on what will be learned in college. The students are just going to start over again with the basics in 101 courses anyway. So, teach whatever you want in high school, to include unscientific, religious materials in science classes because it will foster critical thinking skills, hopefully.<\/p>\n

Dr. Thomson, please tell me that is not what you intended. I understand your frustration with a possible lack of critical thinking skills in some new college students. But the solution isn’t to throw a bunch of unscientific garbage into the curriculum and let students debate it. I’m willing to bet I can find several college professors who will say that what students learn in high school does effect learning in college. I’ve been told by professors that they had to spend precious time un-teaching misconceptions and incorrect information. And there is a very real problem with students being forced to take remedial courses before they can even tackle the 101 material. Allowing intelligent design and bogus “critical analysis” will only compound these problems.<\/p>\n

Also quoted in the story is Jeff Youngman, curriculum supervisor for Hernando County School District. His comments suggest that creationism isn’t part of the curriculum and shouldn’t be. Sometimes students might bring the topic up: “But science classes aren’t discussions on people’s opinions on things. It’s more a presentation of what theory is and what we know.” Youngman’s quotes don’t fit into the story’s headline or its lead paragraph that states: “Local education experts say a proposed bill that would require science teachers to critique evolution \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and include some religious aspects \u00e2\u20ac\u201d would do little to harm students’ learning of the topic or affect their performance in higher education.” Dr. Thomson is saying that, but Youngman clearly isn’t. Perhaps the reporter, Jeff Schmucker, didn’t quite understand the topic he was writing about; but even with that possibility in mind, his two sources are clearly not in agreement as his introduction would have readers believe.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the reporter says that Sen. Wise was interviewed recently on a Tampa radio station. I’m not aware of any such interview happening recently on radio. He talked to one newspaper reporter<\/a>, and that’s the only interview he’s given on this subject this year I’m aware of. A Tampa radio interview did happen back in early 2009<\/a> concerning the bill he filed back then. It appears to me that the reporter rushed through the writing of this story.<\/p>\n

In other words, this is a confusing story inside and out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling mighty confused by an article that recently appeared in Hernando Today (a Tampa Tribune paper): Educators: Bill that criticizes evolution won’t hurt students. Read the following excerpt and ponder what is being stated for a moment: Dr. Stacey … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-kQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":502,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=502","url_meta":{"origin":1292,"position":0},"title":"News roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My apologies for this quick news link dump. The chemistry class I'm taking now is kicking my butt. I hope to have some thoughts on the movie situation up here tonight. In the meantime: Herald Tribune. I'm not buying what Mr. Luskin is selling. Stein and John Stemberger, president of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Creationism Bills"","block_context":{"text":"Creationism Bills","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1025,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1025","url_meta":{"origin":1292,"position":1},"title":"Biology students do pay attention","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, high school biology teachers, students are paying attention to you. What you teach and how you teach it really can influence how kids view evolution and creationism, according to a recently published study. The study questioned introductory biology students at the college level concerning their views on evolution and\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1025#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":725,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=725","url_meta":{"origin":1292,"position":2},"title":"What was in that evolution lesson?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tampa Tribune, specifically Hernando Today, has a story out this morning about an evolution lesson that had apparently gone awry. The story is a bit confusing, though. The problem didn't actually involve evolution, but rather some mentions of religion. A sixth-grade student from \u00c2\u00a0Explorer K-8 in Hernando County told\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=317","url_meta":{"origin":1292,"position":3},"title":"Last night’s science standards meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Orlando Sentinel reports that several people attended last night's meeting in Orlando about the new draft science standards with the objective of promoting intelligent design and complaining about evolution. But several people who spoke Thursday urged state Department of Education officials to allow schools to teach intelligent design and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":432,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=432","url_meta":{"origin":1292,"position":4},"title":"Story on Highlands County meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Print this article out. Save it. It's a good one. Supporters of good science education made an outstanding showing! James Broen said he has a Ph.D. in microbiology and is a parent of three students in the school district. ... Concerning the proposed resolution and the teaching of alternative theories,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 91 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 91 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=432#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":643,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=643","url_meta":{"origin":1292,"position":5},"title":"Manatee County learning science","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My hat is off to Manatee County for having teachers participate in a series of classes on ways to teach science! The classes, sometimes held at a Bradenton coffee shop or at the South Florida Museum, are being offered to Manatee science teachers this summer through a partnership with Lockheed\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=643#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1294,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions\/1294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}