{"id":189,"date":"2007-03-30T07:12:57","date_gmt":"2007-03-30T11:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=189"},"modified":"2008-08-05T12:32:31","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T16:32:31","slug":"evolution-confusion-human-vs-geological-time-scales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=189","title":{"rendered":"Evolution confusion: Human vs. geological time scales"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Museum conducted a study<\/a> saying that only 31 percent of\u00c2\u00a0visitors to at least one of six participating\u00c2\u00a0museums\u00c2\u00a0could accurately explain natural selection, a key part of evolution. Apparently, one thing that stops some people cold is not comprehending the vast scale of time.<\/p>\n

He [Bruce MacFadden<\/a>]\u00c2\u00a0said the problem is that most people tend to think on the human time scale, which is on the order of hundreds of years, instead of the geological time scale, which is millions and billions of years.<\/p>\n

The problems weren’t in understanding when dinosaurs lived, but instead the time difference between when humans and dinosaurs walked the Earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The study was presented at the Southeastern Section of the Geological Society of America annual meeting<\/a>. Scrolling down on that page I see that there was a symposium on “Teaching Organic Evolution for K-16 Students and Pre-Service Teachers: Viewpoints, Techniques, and Approaches.” That sounds interesting, especially in light of what is written at the end of the newspaper article:<\/p>\n

Larisa Grawe DeSantis is presenting a way to teach evolution.<\/p>\n

She said the idea is to teach students, grades six through 12, the concepts of evolution without ever using the word “evolution.”<\/p>\n

Often some people will close their minds when the word comes up because of their beliefs, she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have to say I initially disagree with DeSantis. I understand where she is coming from, but it’s not the word that turns people off, but the fact that the concept runs counter to\u00c2\u00a0some people’s deeply held\u00c2\u00a0beliefs. Treating the e-word like a dirty word I think just reinforces their preconceptions and even plays right into the anti-evolutionists’ hands. Here’s a press release<\/a> about the various presentations done by Florida Museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Museum conducted a study saying that only 31 percent of\u00c2\u00a0visitors to at least one of six participating\u00c2\u00a0museums\u00c2\u00a0could accurately explain natural selection, a key part of evolution. Apparently, one thing that stops some people cold is not comprehending the vast … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[3,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-33","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1104,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1104","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":0},"title":"You earned an A!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A new study examining the mention of evolution in states' science standards spotlighted us here in Florida for the huge turnaround from a grade of F to a grade of A! Florida\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Over the past decade, Florida has improved its standards more dramatically than perhaps any other state. The 1999\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1104#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":365,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=365","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":1},"title":"Coalition says scientists and teachers need to get involved","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Coalition of Scientific Societies recently conducted a survey about evolution in science education and the public's attitudes toward evolution. I've lamented in the past about how lousy such surveys tend to be, but this one is by far one of the better, more interesting ones to me. I always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1393,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1393","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":2},"title":"Movie review: No Dinosaurs in Heaven","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A documentary focusing on the controversy between evolution and creationism is currently touring the country. On Aug. 28 the Tallahassee Scientific Society will screen No Dinosaurs in Heaven at the Challenger Learning Center IMAX Theatre. Dr. Eugenie Scott from the National Center for Science Education is expected to be in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=223","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":3},"title":"Florida twist on Creation Museum","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"An article in the Orlando Sentinel talks about a theme park designer who made rides for Universal and had also made displays at the new Kentucky Creation \"Museum.\" Sad, sad stuff, but some good quotes from professor Lawrence Krauss. And the headline is funny: Inherit the spin. \"We don't find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2600,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2600","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":4},"title":"Let’s not forget about the Instructional Materials bills","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been giving a lot of attention to the\u00c2\u00a0Religious Expression in Public Schools bills because they're seeing quite a bit action in the Florida legislature. But let's not forget that we're also monitoring Instructional Materials bills filed in both chambers (House Bill 989 and Senate Bill 1210). We're concerned about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1120,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1120","url_meta":{"origin":189,"position":5},"title":"Creationism back in Florida headlines","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We've heard from St. Petersburg politician Bill Foster before. When the new Florida science standards were being written and reviewed, Foster wrote a letter to his local school board warning about the evils of evolution. Now Foster is running for mayor and his creationist beliefs are under the microscope. Will\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 18 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 18 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1120#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189"}],"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=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}