{"id":3371,"date":"2018-11-03T16:34:02","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T20:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2018-11-03T16:34:02","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T20:34:02","slug":"florida-is-once-again-ground-zero-for-antiscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3371","title":{"rendered":"Florida is once again ground zero for antiscience"},"content":{"rendered":"

M.I.T.’s online magazine Undark recently published a deep dive story about efforts to undermine the teaching of global warming facts in public schools:\u00c2\u00a0In America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Science Classrooms, the Creep of Climate Skepticism: Conservative groups are working hard to challenge the teaching of mainstream climate science in schools. In Florida, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found a winning strategy.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The writer,\u00c2\u00a0Sean Patrick Cooper, spent quite a bit of time with me in my empty classroom on a Friday afternoon. We had a long, wide-ranging conversation about the importance of teaching the facts about climate change in schools and how it’s a tough, uphill battle. Students come into school with no significant background in the subject other than possibly some misconceptions passed down through family and social media. They don’t really know anything about the basics of greenhouse gases let alone any of the more complicated concepts. When I teach it, I have to start at a very elementary level and build up from there as fast as I can. There’s surprisingly little time devoted to it in our curriculum map. Of course, I mention climate change throughout the year since it ties in with so many other concepts in my freshman environmental science class. But the time that is devoted to it alone is only a week or two.<\/p>\n

Something that didn’t make it into the story was this fact: depending on what school district and what school a student attends, there is a good chance that the student won’t take a science class that teaches the facts of climate change. Students in my school need three science credits to graduate. So, a student could start off with the state-required biology course, then move on to chemistry and physics. And that student will thus never encounter a single science-based global warming lesson.<\/p>\n

And what makes it even tougher is the outside opposition, which is what the Undark story goes into excellent detail about. Most of the story is set here in Florida because of the law we now have that requires all school districts to bend over backwards to hear out any citizen’s complaints about instructional materials. We fought hard against the bill as it progressed through the state legislature and onto the governor’s desk but ultimately lost. See our page “Challenges to evolution & climate change in textbooks<\/a>” for an overview and links to our many blog posts written as events happened.<\/p>\n

The Undark story has a clear message for us that we need to heed.<\/p>\n

Prominent on [Florida Citizens’ Alliance’s] expanded menu of concerns was climate change, and humanity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presumed role in driving it. […] \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unfortunately, what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become is indoctrination and not education. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our major problem,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The outcome matters: Whoever wins over the minds of this upcoming cohort of American voters will, to a large extent, shape the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policies on climate change for decades to come. Surveys suggest that more Americans than ever now understand the human-climate change connection, but as voters head to the polls for the 2018 midterm elections, more than 40 percent still remain unconvinced that climate change is predominantly caused by human activity. The best way to nudge that number higher, conservative groups seem to be wagering, is to target youngsters in America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s science classrooms.<\/p>\n

Leaders of the Florida Citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Alliance said that with the new bill in place, they will be in a position to pilot and test different strategies deployed at school board meetings. They plan to refine those strategies with challenges across all of the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 67 public school districts.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, the fight has only just begun.<\/p>\n

The alliance was also featured in a recent Education Week piece:\u00c2\u00a0Citizen Activists Push to Revise History Textbooks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What separates the Florida Citizens Alliance and Truth in Textbooks from earlier mom-and-pop approaches to reviewing materials is that these groups are trying to significantly expand their reach, training local activists in districts across many states. The approach is powered by some of the same populism that has boiled up in both political parties, in the sense that activists are relying on local citizens rather than professional historians to review the books.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The Florida group now sends advocacy emails to about 20,000 people and maintains a network of activists in about seven of the state’s counties who keep tabs on local classroom materials adoptions; they are trying to build that number up to 15.<\/p>\n

About 60 Florida activists have been trained through the Truth in Textbooks’ training process, now conducted mainly online, to look for bias, “half truths,” factual errors, and omissions in the books.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then there is this story in PBS’s Frontline:\u00c2\u00a0Dueling Books Compete to Educate Kids on Climate Change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The group that mailed books and DVDs arguing that global warming isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t real to science teachers around the country last year is redoubling its efforts: It plans to publish and distribute a new book \u00e2\u20ac\u201d this one aimed at both teachers and students \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in the coming months.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fortunately, we’re not alone in this fight. We work closely with the National Center for Science Education<\/a> and their awesome network of science defenders. And over the past few years we developed great working relationships with other groups, eventually joining with them to form Florida Education Defenders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But did you take note of the Alliance’s main tactic? They have volunteer activists set up all across the state ready to harass their local school boards about any and all textbooks under consideration for adoption. They have teams devoted to recruiting state lawmakers to their cause, resulting in 2018’s attempt to pass yet another law about textbooks<\/a> and a nefarious “controversial theories” bill<\/a>. You can guarantee they are already cooking up bills for 2019’s session.<\/p>\n

Science education in Florida obviously needs defenders. Are you ready to step up?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M.I.T.’s online magazine Undark recently published a deep dive story about efforts to undermine the teaching of global warming facts in public schools:\u00c2\u00a0In America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Science Classrooms, the Creep of Climate Skepticism: Conservative groups are working hard to challenge the teaching … 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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Sn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3431,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3431","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":0},"title":"News Roundup 2\/9\/19: Sen. Baxley takes a pounding","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Several opinion pieces were published since my last news roundup just one week ago. Every one of them tears into state senator Dennis Baxley's bill that attacks so-called \"controversial theories\" in science classrooms. If you need a primer about this bill, check out our issues page:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Controversial Theories\/Rigorous Standards\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bills 2019.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/eastman.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3417,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3417","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":1},"title":"Florida Senator: schools need to teach ‘different worldviews’ on issues like evolution and climate change","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Senator Dennis Baxley filed Senate Bill 330 recently, a piece of legislation that puts the teaching of evolution and climate change in Florida public schools directly in his line of fire. Up until now, all we knew for sure was that he filed a bill that would allow school districts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Controversial Theories bill 2019"","block_context":{"text":"Controversial Theories bill 2019","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=36"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2600,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2600","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":2},"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":3423,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3423","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":3},"title":"News Roundup 2\/2\/19: Controversial Theories in Science bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"There was quite a flurry of news earlier this week about the bill filed in the state senate that would allow Florida school districts to create\/adopt their own sets of academic standards as long as they are equally or more rigorous than the state's standards. The focus of all of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3506,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3506","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":4},"title":"Florida Evolution vs. Creationism Timeline","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The need to defend science education in Florida is truly never ending. I chronicled the many skirmishes, battles and wars fought over the teaching of evolution in my book Going Ape: Florida's Battles over Evolution in the Classroom. 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Rick Scott of being anti-science:\u00c2\u00a0In Senate floor speech, Bill Nelson takes aim at Rick Scott and GOP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwar on science\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371"}],"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=3371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3373,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions\/3373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}