{"id":443,"date":"2008-02-15T06:36:13","date_gmt":"2008-02-15T11:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=443"},"modified":"2008-08-06T10:15:39","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T14:15:39","slug":"news-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=443","title":{"rendered":"News roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Petersburg Times has an editorial up supporting evolution<\/a> in the state science standards.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the state Board of Education will vote on new science standards that finally insist that Florida’s students receive comprehensive biology instruction that includes evolution as its underlying concept. It is an economic imperative that these standards be approved, despite the fierce backlash and pressure that has been rallied by religious elements.<\/p>\n

Twenty-first century businesses in biotechnology and other sciences are watching Florida’s efforts to create an educated work force. Right now, our unwillingness to accept well-established scientific theory is making headlines – just the kind of thing that keeps us a low-wage, tourist-dependant state.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s vote is about Florida’s future, and nothing less.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The paper also did a survey<\/a> and found that the majority of the public missed out on a good science education. At least that’s my reading of it. (full version of survey can be found here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Florida parents don’t have much faith in evolution.<\/p>\n

Only 22 percent want public schools to teach an evolution-only curriculum, while 50 percent want only faith-based theories such as creationism or intelligent design, according to a new St. Petersburg Times survey.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“There is no justification for singling out evolution for special skepticism or critical analysis,” wrote Richard T. O’Grady, executive director of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in a Feb. 8 letter to the Board of Education. “Its strength as a scientific theory matches that of the theory of gravitation, atomic theory and the germ theory.”<\/p>\n

The response from Dennis Baxley, executive director of the Christian Coalition of Florida: “He’s in error.”<\/p>\n

“At one time, the scientific community thought that for good health, you should attach leaches to your body,” said Baxley, a former state representative from Ocala. “We’re just asking them to leave the door open a little bit” for other evidence to be considered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“He’s in error.” Ummmmmm, and your scientific training consists of?<\/p>\n

An op-ed by Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Harold Kroto<\/a> appeared in a few papers. It’s a great read.<\/p>\n

And, in case you missed it, there are some articles<\/a> about the state board of education allowing speakers at their Feb. 19 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The St. Petersburg Times has an editorial up supporting evolution in the state science standards. On Tuesday, the state Board of Education will vote on new science standards that finally insist that Florida’s students receive comprehensive biology instruction that includes … 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":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-79","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":298,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=298","url_meta":{"origin":443,"position":0},"title":"2nd editorial supports evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Another newspaper, this time the Tallahassee Democrat, offers support for the inclusion of evolution in the state science standards. Thank you! Believe it or not, the word \"evolution\" doesn't currently have a home in the official science standards for Florida's public schools. But under proposed new standards, science teachers wouldn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1476,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1476","url_meta":{"origin":443,"position":1},"title":"Florida science standards: D","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida's science standards were dismal. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute regularly reviews\/grades all states' science standards and for the entire life of that report Florida's standards were given F after F. This year is the first time our standards are being reviewed after a complete overhaul in 2008. I know\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":444,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=444","url_meta":{"origin":443,"position":2},"title":"More support for evolution in science standards","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Thank you, Volusia County! A local newspaper, The Beacon, polled the members of the school board to see where they stood on the issue of evolution in the state science standards. All of them were in agreement that science belongs in the science classroom, separate from religious beliefs. Just to\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":511,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=511","url_meta":{"origin":443,"position":3},"title":"How “scientific theory” got into the standards","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The St. Petersburg Times posted a story this evening outlining what was found in e-mails the newspaper obtained via public records requests from the Florida Department of Education. The purpose of the public records request? To find out where the last minute new state science standards option that featured the\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":1619,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1619","url_meta":{"origin":443,"position":4},"title":"Florida’s science standards: I’m confused","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in May, the State Board of Education talked for a few minutes about the state's science standards woes. The science standards developed and approved in 2008 simply aren't the best. I provided a lengthy summary of what the Board decided to do, even though that decision was rather hazy.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1619#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1621,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1621","url_meta":{"origin":443,"position":5},"title":"Science education not a priority in Florida?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently, Florida's education commissioner decided that Florida's C rated science standards, with some tweaks, are just find and dandy. He thinks there is no need to adopt the national science standards like Florida did in other subjects. Bridge to Tomorrow says: Florida is a leader in the Common Core Standards\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1621#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443"}],"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=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}